When Worlds Collide
by ImzadiRose
Summary: On a parallel world, two souls will reunite while a deadly battle looms on the horizon.
1. Chapter 1

_(I would like to make a note here, that this was a roleplay between a friend of mine (Jessy) and myself. We did this story after the Doctor left Rose in Pete's World the first time, before we even knew Billie Piper was coming back into the series for a few episodes.)_

**When Worlds Collide: Rose & the Doctor  
**

Over the years, the Doctor had many different companions on his travels. In the end though, they always left. Whether they left of their own will, or the Doctor failed to save them when the cold clutches of death took them, they never stayed. Each loss was a painful reminder of just how alone the Doctor really was. Everyone left. Everything died.

He'd always moved on though. He had, despite the heartache that came with it each time, grown to expect all those whom he befriended to leave him someday, and so while he never knew what the circumstances might be of their leaving, he had a little smidge of preparation built into his system. He mourned their loss, then after time moved on, though he never, ever forgot them. The one that had really struck a blow on him, though, and the pain from which would likely never fully fade from his hearts, was Rose.

He had fought to allow himself from starting to develop feelings for her, as he knew that she too, like all the others, would someday leave him, but it couldn't be stopped. She'd stolen his hearts, and they'd been crushed completely when she'd become trapped in the parallel universe. The final goodbye had been one of the most heartache inducing moments of his life, and he'd had far too many of those.

Normally his loneliness at the loss of one companion would fade away to a tolerable point upon finding a new one, but such had not been the case post-Rose. Even in his travels with Martha, he still pined for his former companion. And then, Martha had left, and Donna had come along. So much time passed, so many adventures had, and still, Rose's name was whispered in his mind with every fleeting thought. When he slept he dreamt of her. Nightmares of the destruction of his world, the loss of his people, his family, of everything now mingled with the loss of her. Yes, she was still alive, she was safe, but he'd never see her again.

He was determined to find some way to travel between the two parallel worlds without damaging anything. There HAD to be a way. It had been impossible in the first place to end up there, but he had, even if it was by accident. The idea of finding a better, safer way to get to that world again seemed impossible, but that wouldn't stop the Doctor, oh no. He liked impossible.  
He _thrived_ on impossible. The truth was that nothing ever really was truly impossible; there were only levels of how challenging a situation was. The Doctor had won in so many "impossible" circumstances; this was just one more.

Unfortunately, the time to attempt to figure out such a thing wasn't something he had much of these days. Adventures called to him, whether his assistance was asked for or he happened to fall into the situation. So many things had happened since he'd last seen Rose. So many of them pretty bloody awful. Between all of that and the constant pain of loss, he wondered if it was possible to ever feel the joy of life he once did again.

Now, after a series of some very interesting events, albeit tragic ones in the end for some part of them, he found himself back in London, 2008, as Donna wished to spend a few days at home with her family. The Doctor, whose mood was currently a bit on the broody side and not as up to going somewhere exciting just yet, had granted the request, the T.A.R.D.I.S. now safely parked behind Donna's granddad's house.

While Donna visited her family, planning to go see some friends as well, the Doctor had grown restless and wandered off on his own for a bit, keeping the phone Martha had given him, on him, so Donna could call. He'd told her he'd be back; she had seemed a little wary, and then gone on her way to see her friends and family. He wondered if she had any idea just how lucky she was to be able to do that.

He wound up heading into the city, perusing amongst various shops and some street vendors. He stopped in front of the spot where Henrik's used to stand, his hearts twinged with that old familiar heartache for a moment. He remained a minute longer, fighting back the threat of tears, and then forced himself to turn away and move on. Soon enough, his attention was caught by a fruit stand, which was selling bananas at a wonderful price of one quid per pound. Eyeing the fruity delights, he rummaged through his pockets, pretty sure he had some money from this world in there somewhere.

Finally finding the bill he was looking for, he handed it over to the fruit vendor, picking out three bananas that looked to be of just the right ripeness. A chill went through him suddenly, his senses tingling as the universe told him something was just not right. What else was new, honestly?

"Ruddy lookin' weather, innit? Sunny a moment ago, now it's lookin' to storm."

The Doctor glanced up to the fruit vendor, an older man who looked to be in his late seventies, but was still sharp as a tack. The man was currently squinting up at the sky, which caused the Doctor to look up as well, a similar frown turning down both their mouths at the sight of it.

The sky was not just dark, but was progressively getting darker. The darker it got, the worse the feeling of impending trouble within the Doctor grew. It looked like lightning clouds, but more ominous, much more ominous.

And then, just that moment, lightning struck.

Only it wasn't lightning. With regular lightning, it would either strike an empty part of the sky, or some metal pole or some unfortunate chap who happened to be passing by. This lightning hit the ground and hard, causing a huge explosion of dirt and broken pavement, sending people screaming and running. The owner of the fruit cart soon followed them, getting up and running with a departing, "Screw this, I'm off!" before running faster than any average old human the Doctor had ever seen run, or would've seen if he'd been looking.

His eyes were wide, drawn to the swirling white energy field rising up from where the lightning had struck, almost like a tear in the air. It swirled in a counter-clockwise direction, emitting strong gusts of wind. Whipping out the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor began to move closer to it, the end of the screwdriver pointed right in its direction.

By now the area was mostly evacuated, the sounds of sirens approaching the area. Another gust of wind nearly threw the Doctor off his feet, then suddenly circled back like a boomerang and hit him from the back, shoving him forward and stumbling right into the energy field, the energy doing the rest of the work in sucking him inside.

On the other side of the strange swirly energy thingie, he was thrown to the ground, a few pieces of fruit and other debris from the other side following with him. Rising quickly to his feet, the windswept Doctor looked around. Nothing had seemed to change, except that the swirly energy was gone, and there were zeppelins in the air. This meant that the impossible had happened once again: he was on the parallel Earth. Meaning something strange and likely very bad had happened.

Also meaning that Rose was here.

Despite his grave concern over what had happened, a glimmer of hope filled him. He would get to see her once again, and maybe, just maybe, she could come with him if a way back to normal Earth was restored. If it could be done, that was, with him finding a way to get himself back.

Brushing himself off, eyeing the scattered fruit on the ground, he picked up one of the bananas and began on his way to try to go find Rose, and a solution to this whole mess. Whatever had caused the rift between the two universes likely had occurred on this side, so there had to be some kind of physical indication nearby as to what it had been.

Her thoughts had been a twisted jumble over the past couple of years; wondering how The Doctor was doing, if he was alright, if he kept his promise to her. She had never gotten over getting trapped on this world, even if she had been with those she loved, her family, but that was all gone now. Her family was no more; everything had perished in her life, all because of one man-

-A man that she swore vengeance upon. He had tricked her into believing he was her Doctor and then took advantage of her, using her to get into Torchwood 3, Cardiff. When she fought him off, he retaliated by killing her family and friends, slowly, painfully, with her screaming and pleading for him to stop. He had been ruthless, relentless, malicious-yet, those events would also shape Rose into who she is now.  
They shaped her into a soldier and one that wasn't going to stop until she got rid of the _Torchwood Killer…_

But that wasn't the worst of it, now her team was informing her that something was going down within the catacombs beneath the city. The catacombs that Torchwood, on this world, built beneath the city to contain the many weapons it captured over the years and-The Doctor of this world was behind it all. This was her chance; her chance for survival, for revenge-for justice. She wasn't going to let this slip through her fingers again, she refused.

"What do you got for me?" she asked as she strode into the Hub, removing her jacket as she moved swiftly to Tosh's side, at the computer monitor. The intruder, warning alarms were screeching overhead.

"Not much, I'm afraid. We caught the Torchwood Killer entering one of the hidden doors. When he was here he must have found the pass-codes for it…" Tosh started, but was cut off by Rose as she shook her head, some blonde hair shaking loose from the ponytail.

"No. He's got a device, a sonic screwdriver. All he would have had to figure out was where the door was located. The screwdriver would break the lock, without the codes…" Rose stopped in mid-sentence to glare up at the flashing red, warning lights, shouting, "would someone shut those bloody things off?! I can't think to hear myself speak!"

The others rushed about as Tosh worked to shut the alarms off, failing miserably. "The circuits are fried! I can't shut them off!!!" Tosh cried out, exasperated. Every single one of them had been pushed to their limits over the past few days, running on only small cat-naps here and there and Ianto's magnificent coffee.

"Fine! I'm going down there," Rose said as she spun away, slipped her coat back on and headed for the weaponry. She planned on stopping it once and for all. The Torchwood Killer would be no more, because she would make certain of it.  
If this _man_, this "Doctor" was anything like the one she knew, then she knew who, what, he was. She knew he couldn't die, not exactly, but there are worse things than death. She'd make him wish he could die.

"You're not going by yourself! It's suicide!" Owen shouted at her.

"Watch me…" she muttered as she disappeared into the weaponry room. Nothing was going to stop her and she wasn't going to lose anyone else. She would stop him or die trying.

A few minutes later, Rose was at her SUV, shoving what looked to be some sort of futuristic rifle into the passenger seat, before climbing behind the steering wheel; the "rifle" was a type of gun, but it was a laser based alien weapon that Torchwood had uncovered about a year ago, Rose having led the team, of course. This weapon would cause the person hit by it extreme agony and if the charge was set high enough, even death; she had only used this weapon once before, to stop a crazed alien man from destroying Cardiff, and the world-the high energy charge had vaporized him, but she hadn't had much of a choice in the matter; he had seemed highly resistant to the lower settings.

Her hand on the inner frame of the open window, she started to close the door as a hand grabbed her wrist, causing her hazel eyes to glare up at the person who dared to try to stop her; it was Gwen-

"Rose, please don't go alone. You shouldn't face this demon by yourself, he could kill you."

"That's a risk I have to take, Gwen. If I don't stop him, or try to, who will? You? I know more about this man than anyone alive. Have faith, if anyone can stop him, it would be me."

"I know what you want. I know you want revenge, justice.  
But is it really worth your life?"

"I give my life everyday to save this miserable planet, Gwen," she said, her voice harsher than Gwen had ever heard, "first Torchwood took my life and then he just finished what they had started. I lost everyone, including my baby brother…"

Gwen released her wrist as she saw the pain in her eyes; pain that she knew all to well. She had been there when the team had rescued Rose from the Torchwood Killer and she hadn't been in a good state of mind after that, nearly having gone insane. Some of that insanity still stuck to Rose, which is what scared her the most. Ever since she had seen Tony murdered, just a baby, barely able to crawl-that had been what broke her. Poor Tony, he had been such a sweet baby boy and it pained Gwen when she had seen Rose's family lying there in a bloodbath at Rose's tied up, sobbing form.

"Go. Do what you need to do then," Gwen said to Rose nodding. She actually had another plan; she and the rest of the team were going to track Rose's SUV and follow her. She wasn't going into this alone, no way-she was going to have her backup; the people who cared for her.

Giving a brief nod, Rose closed the door, started the engine, backed out of the parking spot and left the grounds of the complex. It was time to get the ball rolling. Unbeknownst to her, Tosh already had the tracker going and her team was trailing her a few streets behind.

Moments later Rose arrived at the coordinates of the breached door to the catacombs, throwing the SUV in park, grabbing the laser rifle and hopping out, she left the keys in the ignition, just in case of a much needed escape, a last ditch effort. As she came upon the warehouse that hid the secret entrance, one of many, she glanced around, unaware that she was being watched by the Torchwood Killer. Right hand faltering above the handle, she glanced up to see the little red, blinking dot on the security camera as it shifted its position to watch her.  
_I can do this. Rose, you have to do this. Remember your family. __  
__Remember Tony_… Decision made. Opening the door, she stepped into the warehouse-

"Ah, if it isn't Miss Rose Tyler, how are you doing this evening? Forlorn and melancholy, I hope. Me, on the other hand, I'm excited," came the ever familiar voice from the speakers throughout the warehouse. That voice brought back so many memories, both good and bad. Who ever knew that one face, one voice, could ever have that type of impact on anyone?

Keeping silent, refusing to respond, she kept on moving towards the entrance to the catacombs; he wouldn't be able to hear her if she said anything anyway. "Oh, come now, is that any way to treat an old friend?"

All that got from her was an eye roll. He knew so much about her past on the parallel world; about her family, life, even The Doctor and her time with him…Even that she loved him, still does. He knew because he took advantage of that love and when she had found out the truth of whom he really was…Well, let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight and she has the scars to prove it, physical, emotional and mental.

"I've got a little surprise for you, my dear," he continued to taunt over the speakers, just as she reached the entrance to the catacombs, "see, it seems that you're not alone here. I see you brought friends…"

That got a reaction out of her, just as her hand was above the handle, causing her hazel orbs to jump to the nearest camera, wide eyed.  
_No_… Deciding she better hurry, before the team caught up with her, she grasped the door handle and then started screaming as about 1200 volts coursed through her body, eventually dropping her to the ground unconscious.

She awoke minutes later to someone, a woman, shaking her fiercely and begging her to wake up. Slowly, dazedly her eyes opened to see Gwen and Tosh kneeling over her; Gwen having been the one shaking her. Confused, she wasn't sure what had happened, but it only took a minute for the memory to rush back to her-the door handle. Wait, something wasn't right here, where are the men?

"Where…" she began to ask the women.

"We followed you," Tosh began, "and were ambushed about a block away from here. Owen and Ianto are missing. I'm afraid we…"

"Don't know where they are?" The familiar voice came as a wall seemed to come to life before their eyes. There, on the screen, were Owen and Ianto tied up to chairs and behind them-

Behind them was the Torchwood Killer, the "Doctor" of this world and what he was holding made her blood run cold as ice-her laser rifle, "Leave them alone!" Her voice surprised her, the frantic fear that laced it as she forced herself up and ran towards the screen.  
"It's me you want! Leave them out of this!!"

"Now why would I want to do that, hmm? Do you have…Oh no you don't!" His shout caused her to jump, surprised and then she heard an electrical hiss of energy as something came to life behind her, causing yelps of pain and surprise from Tosh and Gwen. Spinning around, she saw the women get thrown backwards as a spark of energy passed through them and they fell to the ground unconscious, possibly even dead.

"NOOOOO!!!!" The wail emitted from her lips, even before she realized it was her. Gwen and Tosh, they weren't moving! She spun back towards the monitor, "what have you done to them?!"

"The same thing I'm going to do to these two," he replied nonchalantly as two devices descended from the ceiling above the two captured men's heads. Opening her mouth the same type of energy surged through them and she watched them screaming before they also fell unconscious or dead, leaving her gaping in surprise as she realized what it was.  
It was the same type of energy that the rifle had! How had he managed to do this?

"You don't belong here. I've gotten rid of your family and now I'm going to get rid of you too. I don't want you here to ruin my plans for this world, for my domination. You've already done enough damage as it is, just by being here. And, I'm sorry to say, that while this has been fun, torturing you and all, I'm afraid it's finally come to an end."

After he was done speaking the view screen vanished and the wall slid up into the ceiling, revealing him standing there, Owen and Ianto's bodies still tied up to the chairs. Her heart was broken now and without thinking she lunged at the Torchwood Killer, hell bent on killing him with her bare hands.

"You son of a-" Her words were cut off as a hand shot out and grasped at her throat, causing her leg to shoot out and slam her booted heel into his stomach, "I'm going to kill you!!"

The man fell back, slamming into a console behind him, laughing like the madman he was. Dashing towards him his foot shot up, seemingly out of nowhere, and slammed into her side, causing her to fall sideways and land on the floor. The man rose and danced around the console, grinning that devilish grin as he peered over it at her. That grin, the one she used to love and adore, suddenly put the fear of God into her. This man took pleasure in hurting others, killing others, she had to remember that this wasn't the man she had loved.

"Goodbye Rose, and good riddance…" he said again as she rose to her feet and took a step towards the console he was standing behind. He brought his hand up, winked at her and then brought his hand down upon a button as hard, and as fast, as he could.

Suddenly a pure white beam of light shot up from the room, behind where the man was standing, her hazel eyes jerking up to follow it. Some sort of cyclone appeared, moving clockwise, causing a massive wind to whip through the room, as the entire complex began to shake and shutter, throwing her off her feet.

The man stumbled towards a corridor, muttering words that were lost upon the howling wind and then disappeared. She tried to go after him, but realized she'd die if she tried to; the foundation beneath her feet began to crack as Owen and Ianto, still strapped to their chairs, flew up into the air and into the cyclone. She made a stumbling run towards the nearest door, turning to watch in horror as the cyclone grew, expanding past the barrier that had separated her from the other women and saw them pulled up into the cyclone as well.

"Nooo!" Her wail was lost upon the howls as things began to change. Before her very eyes, the cyclone seemed to shift its direction, now moving counter-clockwise, but nothing was coming out. Raising her gaze upwards, she saw the roof was gone, but couldn't see where due to the cyclone's top. The building began to shake even more violently now, concrete falling from the walls and ceiling, the floor breaking apart even more. The place was going to collapse on her!

Giving a silent "_I'm sorry & Goodbye_" to her late friends, she turned on her heels and began to make a mad dash towards, what she hoped, was the entrance. She didn't want to be buried alive.  
Feet racing rapidly over the ever increasing pace of the breaking floor, she dodged debris that fell from above her and then she saw it-

An open door and the warehouse beyond it and saw that it was collapsing as well; pushing herself harder, she tried to make it and then everything went black as she felt something slam down upon her and knock her to the ground, the last thing she remembered was seeing the floor, hearing the cyclonic howls and the ever-deafening crash of things falling around her, surrounding her; her last thoughts-the _real_ Doctor.


	2. Chapter 2

A Time Lord's brain was quite a complex thing, much more than the average human brain. One could say that due to its functions that a Time Lord was a psychic, but in truth it was much more powerful than that. The brain of a Time Lord could receive messages from the past, future, and present, even from planets and places far, far away, sometimes without the Time Lord even realizing he was receiving these messages.

Also, a Time Lord's brain could detect the presence of others like himself, and in the old days could even link the minds of all the others. Now that there was only one left, the Doctor, this of course wasn't possible, but should another Time Lord exist, he would sense it.

The Master had been around for so long and he hadn't picked up on it, only because of the Master's use of a Chameleon Arch to become human, allowing him to hide from any who might detect him, including the Doctor himself. But then, he'd revealed himself, and the whole bout had ended in tragedy. Humankind was saved, but the Master finally perished, leaving the Doctor as the last Time Lord, and truly, achingly alone.

So needless to say, while running through the streets of parallel London, when he picked up upon the familiar sense of another Time Lord near by, the Doctor was filled with a rush of intrigue, concern, and hope.

It occurred to him that while it seemed impossible, parallel versions of himself and others could exist. Was there a parallel Gallifrey, parallel Time Lords? If so, the energies, while likely different in some way, had to be somewhat the same since he could detect something so familiar. He stopped only to take out his sonic screwdriver, determined to find the source of what he was sensing. It could've been a trick, there could've been something sinister behind it, but then again, perhaps not. Perhaps something good and happy would happen, without consequences. Such thoughts were quickly dashed down by logic; nothing was without consequence.

Following the direction the screwdriver took him in, his sense of this other being like himself grew stronger. And then, it suddenly stopped, just completely disappeared. Well, almost. The feeling was faint, but barely there, and the direction of where it had gone couldn't be detected. There was something here, and it was messing of him, quickly killing all feelings of hope that this might be a good thing. Someone was playing a game.

His attention was again distracted to the warehouse the signal had led him to, collapsed and possibly quite recently given the sounds of approaching sirens. Moving to the open door, he peered inside. The signal had led him here, there had to be some connection. And then, he saw her, lying on the ground, unconscious or dead.

Rose.

He was over by her side in an instant, eyes wide, the worst of fears rushing through him until he touched her neck and felt the pulse. She was alive. Grunting as he pushed debris off of her, he reached underneath her, picking her up and holding her as a groom would his bride, a grim look on his face as he walked her out of the warehouse, parts of which he could still hear were collapsing.

Once outside and far enough from the building, he set her down on the ground as gently as he could, kneeling next to her and touching the side of her face. "Wake up, Rose," he said softly, taking out the stethoscope to listen to her heartbeat. Putting the earphones in, he pressed the chest piece over her heart, listening, his other hand moving behind her head to elevate it slightly. He was happy with what he heard; she wasn't dying.

"Come on Rose, wake up," he said again, wanting her to be alright and also to be able to get some answers as to exactly what had just gone on here.

Before she lost complete consciousness, she gave a last thought as to the whereabouts of the real Doctor, if he was out having the adventures they used to have together, or not. Then everything had gone dark, the cyclonic howling fading into nothingness as she thought she was going to die. A few short minutes later, the cyclone that the Torchwood Killer had started, ended. The shaking stopped and everything became still, more or less.

There, lying under a bunch of debris, was Rose, face-down with most of her small form covered by fallen concrete and wood. The catacombs were destroyed, the warehouse above nearly in shambles about to finish collapsing in on itself. The Torchwood Killer managed to evade capture once more, having disappeared into the night, leaving her without her team, friends and family now. She was alone.

And then the strangest thing happened to her. Unconsciously, she felt as if a familiar presence had appeared. Even in unconsciousness she sensed that someone was over her, touching her, moving her, yet she couldn't do anything about it; couldn't cry out or speak to the person. Movement-

_**CRASH!!**_

Shortly after he took her from the warehouse, it finished collapsing, the walls caving in and collapsing the flooring, everything falling into the catacombs below. They were safe though, he had taken her to a safe distance, away from any prominent danger.

"_Wake up, Rose."_

A voice and more movement, someone was holding her head up and speaking to her. The voice was soft and so familiar. She pushed through her unconsciousness, wanting to find out what was happening, but at the same time she didn't want to wake up; for she didn't believe that there was anything left.

_Revenge. Wake up._

Eyes fluttered beneath closed lids, a soft groan of pain emitting from slightly parted lips as the voice came once more, seemingly less and less farther away, _"come on Rose, wake up."_

Beginning to feel more, as she was coming to, she groaned again, her head shifting in his hand as her eyes fluttered open for a split second and then closed again. She had caught a glimpse of the man who was holding her head up, and as the brief sight registered in her mind, her hazel eyes flew open, focusing all of their attention on him.

"No…" she said, her voice coming out as a hoarse, harsh whisper. Hazel eyes wide, she stumbled in a vain attempt to get away from this man. This man looked like The Doctor, but he could just be the Torchwood Killer trying to trick her again. During the vain, stumbling attempt, she felt an immense pain in the back of her head, where she had been struck by the falling debris and it caused her to stop. If this man was the Torchwood Killer, she was at his mercy now; she hoped he made her death quick, she didn't want to suffer.

"Why?" she asked hoarsely, "haven't you taken everything from me already? There's nothing more to take, you made sure of that already." Her eyes were cold, but pained as she stared at The Doctor, unaware that she was really face-to-face with him after all of these years. He'd finally found her and the reunion was, probably, not what he had expected.

"Wake up."

He glanced up quickly towards the building as the rest of it collapsed, instinctively hovering over her more to protect her, even though they were a safe enough distance away. Others could've been inside, but life could not be sensed. If they were in there, likely they were dead. Rose was lucky, very lucky. Had he not arrived moments earlier, she'd have been dead, and he'd have truly lost her forever.

His hearts twinged with pain at that thought, which was quickly brushed aside as she began to stir. A wide smile plastered itself across his face, his happiness at being here with her, seeing her and holding her taking over all other current feelings. "Hello," he said softly to her as her eyes opened, whereupon he became quite shocked at her reaction once she saw him.

He moved back and watched her in great surprise as she fought despite her injuries to get away from him. Something was not right. He was the same as he'd been the last time she'd seen him, yet she was terrified of his appearance. Two and two began to be put together in his head, especially at her words. The other Time Lord he sensed could very well have been some kind of imposter.

"Rose, listen to me," he said, very calmly, holding out his hands and taking a step closer to her. "I'm not one hundred percent sure of exactly what's happened here, but I'm guessing someone's been posing as me. I'm not him, it's me, the Doctor. The real Doctor."

An anger filled him at what must've been happening if she was so scared. It would be difficult, convincing her of who he was. He didn't even know if he was correct in assuming there was some sort of imposter about; it was a lucky guess. He'd hurt her though, and whoever it was, he would pay.

He slowly drew closer, hands where she could see them, his eyes locked on hers. Mind link? It might work, but there was no telling if she'd really believe it or not. She was no fool, and she'd certainly suspect he might be tricking her. There had to be a way.

"Rose, believe me. It's really me."

The man spoke to her, trying to convince her that he was the real Doctor, but she wasn't falling for it. She watched the man before her, as he backed off from her; she took this chance to scuttle backwards a bit more, her back finally hitting something solid behind her. She was outside, only beginning to notice it now; the sky was dark and overcast. Rain threatened with its scent in the air.

Putting a hand behind her, she grabbed a hold of what was behind her, feeling that it was a parked car. She was out in the parking lot of the warehouse with this man! Facing the man, who now had his hands out and taking a step towards her, she noted the demolished warehouse behind him. Her eyes didn't stay there long as she focused all of her attention on the man before her, as she slowly attempted to move around the car.

"Drop the act," she said coldly, trying to hide the deep set fear within her. She couldn't allow him to see how bad he scared her, that's what he would want. "I may not understand why you want to destroy us, but I give you my word, I will stop you. I know who, what you are, and I can stop you. You may flit about in your machine, but I will always find you. You will pay for all the lives you've taken, for there are worse things than death."

Now at the edge of the car, she saw that it was blue, out of the corner of her eye. Her head hurt, she wanted so badly to just sit and rest, but not as long as the Torchwood Killer was in front of her. She wouldn't risk it. "I'm not falling for it. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Her vision began to fade in and out, from the whack on the head, but she wasn't going to let it get the best of her. "You've pulled this trick before and I'm not going to fall for it again."

Her eyes darkened a bit as the memories of what the Torchwood Killer had done to her family, Mickey, teammates and even her. "You killed them," she said, pain and hatred filling her voice. "You took them all away from me. _**Everything**_!"

Tears rimmed her eyes as her voice rose up, "I'm stuck on this parallel world, alone, no family or friends! You made sure of that! And I swear, you won't kill me as easily as you killed them! I will fight back! I will take you down!" Without a second thought she lunged at the man, still unaware he was not the evil maniac.

"You murdered them! Right in front of me! You're a murderer!!" Rose closed a fist as she lunged towards him, bringing it up, fully intent on going down fighting. At least she will die an honorable death; she will fight till her last breath.

She didn't believe him, that was something clear as day by the look in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, in one sense, though the exact whys remained unknown. The sky turned overcast, obvious to the Doctor without the need to look up by the shadows movement, the light dimming, and the scent of rain. It was a sadly poetic match to the events occurring right before him.

He moved closer, not wanting to crowd her, but wanting to be near in case she ran. She was injured likely, and should she run she risked more injury to herself. As scared as she was of him, as much venom and hate as she shot at him, and as much as it hurt to see such emotions coming from her being directed towards him, he wouldn't allow her to be hurt anymore.

"It's not an act. I am who I say I am. I swear I am."

He had to reach her, had to touch her, had to get into her mind to find out the exact truth of it and show her his own mind, that it was him. It was the only way.

She startled him as suddenly she lunged at him, his eyes widening as her fist made sharp contact with his jaw, the pain intense for a moment, quickly ignored as he fought to take hold of her arms and stop her.

"Rose! Rose! Stop it now! I'm not going to hurt you!"

It felt so redundant saying those words over and over again, but she wasn't listening. He struggled with her, forcibly turning her around and pulling her back against his front, holding down her arms against his body with all his strength, which was a lot more than it would appear to be with him. "Just calm down," he said softly into her ear. To do a full mind link, he'd need to have both hands free, but that was a bit tricky right now. An idea struck him, and he rested his head against her own, closing his eyes and entering her mind, the door way full open for her to see inside his own as well.

He saw it all. The imposter, the murders. Everyone she ever loved here, dead. He felt her pain, her rage, her obsession with revenge.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry," he whispered to her as he looked through her thoughts. "I don't know who this man is but I'm going to find him, and stop him. I promise you I will."

"Liar!!" She shouted in response to his words, feeling her fist connect with his jaw. Fury and rage were driving her now, fueling her. She wasn't fast enough to dodge his next movements though; giving a shout as he spun her around, her back to him, holding her arms down. She continued to struggle and fight against him, refusing to allow him to get the upper hand.

"No! Let me go!" She shouted loudly, knowing no one else would hear them, but not caring in the least. She heard him whisper in her ear and the tears that had been brimming in her eyes began to fall. It was pointless to struggle now, he has won. The Torchwood Killer had the upper hand now; Rose Tyler, leader of Torchwood 3, was at his mercy, at last.

Then she felt it, him entering her mind. Her eyes squeezed shut as a loud, scream came from the depths of her soul, echoing upon the night air. As he delved into her mind, into her memories, the sound of thunder cracked overhead, the sky lighting up brightly from the lightening. "Please…" her voice pleading as her body shook with fear and pain of her losses.

She saw everything, her recent memories of the past couple of months. She saw her parents, Mickey and her baby brother murdered before her eyes again, herself tied to a chair as she watched The Doctor of this world cut and torture them. She watched what happened recently with Owen, Ianto, Gwen and Tosh. Their deaths were on her hands, all of them were; all because she had fallen for the Torchwood Killer's plot. The fact that he knew so much about The Doctor, how the Torchwood Killer pretended to be him, faking having found a way to this world, only to get inside the Hub.

"…make it stop…" she whispered as she suddenly began to see some of his memories.

Oh God, it was really was him! She had punched the man she had fallen in love with all those years ago! She stopped struggling completely, her body sagging in his arms as the sky opened up and the rain began to pour down over them both. She heard him whisper that he'd stop the Torchwood Killer.

"Doctor…I'm sorry…" were the only words that came from her now, repeating them over and over as the tears streaming down her face mixed with the torrential rainfall; she couldn't have asked for better weather to suit her mood. How was she going to make this up to him? How was she going to make up for punching him, for going insane on him?

He saw she realized he was who he said he was, but he still didn't let go of her. He held her close and tight, soon enough closing the link with her mind, simply holding her and resting against her as the rain began to pour down upon them, soaking and chilling through the clothes right down to the bone.

"You don't need to apologize. I'm the one who's sorry. I should've gotten you out of here, away from...away from all of this. I'm sorry."

He slowly shifted her to try to turn her around to face him, turning his head to glance behind them as the ambulances and police came screeching up to the collapsed building. Turning back to her, he set her against the blue car, reaching down and taking her chin, lifting up her face.

"Whatever's happened here I'm going to do what I can to fix it. I can't bring your family back but I can stop this...this other me."

He wondered if the alternate version of him was the only Time Lord, whatever this world's equivalent of it was. He could sense him, and if there were others they were too far off. A longing for his home world pained him, with the knowledge that in this version of the Universe it could exist. But he reminded himself, it wasn't his home. It wasn't the real Gallifrey.

It would give him an advantage though if everything, well, almost everything, was the same about this alternate Doctor. He'd know how to fight him, know his weaknesses. In the end though, his fate had to be determined.  
Rose would want him dead, _did_ want him dead, but the Doctor wouldn't kill him if he could avoid it. If it came to that...he hoped it wouldn't. He'd killed enough of his own kind as it was. He didn't need to add the parallel ones to it. Some kind of suitable prison would have to be found. Somehow.

Turning his attention to her again, he stroked her cheek slowly. "Where's somewhere safe we can go? I don't have the T.A.R.D.I.S. It's back on Earth, the real Earth. Some cyclone caught me and carried me over here. I don't know exactly what happened, and I'm not sure yet how to get back."

She heard his words, his apologies, but he had no reason to apologize. What had happened to trap her here, it had been an accident; she couldn't hold on, lost her grip. If it hadn't been for Pete, her dad, she would have disappeared into the void, right along with the Daleks and Cybermen; that would have been a fate worse than death.

Allowing him to turn her around, she gazed up at him, seeing, as much as hearing the emergency vehicles pulling up behind them. "You have no need to apologize," she said as he moved her to the blue car, letting herself slid down it to rest on the ground.

Her head was really beginning to pound now, her vision fading in and out, but no loss of consciousness, at least not yet. She let her face be lifted up to gaze into his eyes. "I've tried, Doctor. He's ruthless, brutal. He is the exact, polar opposite of you. I mean, when I first saw him…" her voice cracked, trailing off as she let her eyes dart away from his briefly. She had thought he was him, her Doctor, but it had all been a trick and she had fallen for it.

The Torchwood Killer played off of her feelings, her love for The Doctor, all in an attempt to get her out of the picture. But, she was more resourceful that he had planned. She had been able to avoid death, allowing her lust for revenge to drive her to do things she never would have done before, even kill.

The Doctor stroking her cheek snapped her out of her thoughts and she gazed up at him once more, nodding. Then, she understood something. He said a cyclone had brought him here. That means that what she had thought the Torchwood Killer was trying to do was wrong. He was planning something else.

"Yeah, the Hub. It's the only semi-safe place left. My flat was compromised about a month ago, so I've been living there lately. It…It's where I work. I work for Torchwood." Her voice was a bit flat, but she conveyed the truth.

Rubbing the back of her head, she rose to her feet, using the blue car to balance herself. "We better get out of here before the police and medics notice us. The last person I want to see is Doctor Jones." Her voice was bitter when she said the name, _Doctor Jones, _but she had every right to be. However, she'd explain that to him at a later time. "Besides, I may be able to tell you what brought you here. I know of this cyclone you're talking about."

With those words, she gave one last glance at the emergency vehicles and then motioned for him to follow her towards a nearby tree. They could use the tree to shelter themselves from sight so they could get to her SUV and get back to the Hub. "My SUV should be about a block from here. The keys are in the ignition. I had it ready in case I needed to make a quick getaway."


	3. Chapter 3

He still felt horribly guilty for it. He should've worked harder at figuring out a way to get back to her. He supposed what had always been true with the rest of the universe was true for her as well; he couldn't always protect her, and he couldn't save everyone. Despite all the loss, all the tragedy, he was grateful she was still alive. His Rose. She was a smart girl, a clever girl, stronger than she might ever imagine herself to be. He wouldn't say it right now since she'd just lost the last of her friends, it seemed, but he was proud of her for remaining strong and surviving.

He'd seen the methods this man, whom he heard in her mind, called the Torchwood Killer had used to get to her, and that only fueled his anger. The feelings they had for each other had been difficult enough to live with, given that there was no chance of them ever reuniting (well, had been, until now), and now to know that this killer had used Rose's against her to trick her, and consequently ruin her...the Doctor was above killing others, but the desire was there. A desire he hadn't felt in a long, long time.

"Alright. The Hub it is," he said, giving her a little smile of reassurance, even if it was to be lost due to the current circumstances. Glancing behind him as the police and medics and such rushed in their various vehicles towards the building, he nodded in agreement, they better get out of there fast. Though, the name she mentioned caused him to pause. "Doctor Jones? Martha Jones?"

By the tone of her voice, he took it that if it was a parallel version of Martha, it wasn't a good one. This world did become stranger and stranger, and all the while more and more difficult. He watched her move and nodded, quickly following behind her, having no desire to be taken in for questioning of any sorts.

"Lets get back to the Hub first then I want you to tell me everything. I'd rather be on safe ground...never know who's listening."

Back at the Hub he'd check for any bugs. The abilities of this other Doctor couldn't be underestimated. For all they knew, he could be back there and waiting for them. If he was...the Doctor would be ready. It was occurring to him more and more that the energy and rules of this world had him at a greater disadvantage, and it was quite possible that death was the only way of stopping this other man. It was unfortunate, but that was war. And that was precisely what this was. A war of humankind against his other self.

Catching up to her, he took her hand and squeezed it tightly. The happiness of their reunion would be celebrated later. First, there was work to do.

As he said Doctor Jones, it caused a curious brow to rise. She already knew, from his thoughts that he'd travelled with others. They weren't quite clear, but he had seen the two women, Doctor Jones and the red-headed woman; a red-headed woman who didn't exist on this world, thankfully, she'd hate to see what monster she would have been here. It was bad enough that Rose already had plenty of enemies that wanted her dead, she really didn't to add to that list.

"The one and only," she replied with a twinge of bitterness. She knew the good ole, Doctor Jones all too well. The stupid woman had tried to poison her once, which backfired, but still. She was grateful that not everyone on this world was evil; her team was great, while they had been alive-

As she was walking, or more like limping along, she felt The Doctor take her hand and squeeze, which caused her to glance over at him, a brief smile flickering at the edges of her lips, appearing for the briefest of seconds before fading into the tight, thin line she'd been carrying for so long now.

A few minutes later, they were drawing closer, she could see the SUV up ahead, but instead of walking directly towards it, she stopped dead in her tracks. Now, she's not psychic by any means of the imagination, but she could swear that something wasn't right. It took only a few seconds to realize that the SUV had been moved from where she had left it.

Still holding his hand, she reached out with her and grabbed his arm, hoping to keep him from getting any closer, whispering to him. "Wait, something's wrong. I did not park there. The SUV has been moved."

Hazel eyes darted around the area nervously, but she didn't see anything else wrong with the picture. Maybe it was the concussion, or maybe it was her intuition, all she knew was something was terribly wrong.

"Wait here…" she whispered to him quietly, as she let go of his arm, pulling her hand out of his. He was a guest on this world, this place had become her home. So she felt like she should check things out, all because she didn't want him to get hurt. She didn't have to do that, but she wanted to make sure he was safe. She didn't want him to risk another regeneration; if that was even possible without his T.A.R.D.I.S. nearby.

She only walked a couple of steps before she saw it; the rifle that she had taken into the warehouse; the laser rifle that she had planned on using against the evil Time Lord. Carefully, she edged forward a little more, kneeling down beside the rifle, inspecting it. "This shouldn't be here…" she muttered softly to herself as she reached out to touch it.

"Huh. Back on Earth, the normal Earth, she's a good friend. Saved my life, and the rest of the world while she was at it. If we ever get back to the normal Earth, I'll have to introduce you to her." Despite all his wisdom, the Doctor was a bit clueless in realizing that might be a bad idea, seeing as Martha had developed feelings for him, something he wasn't entirely aware of. His own thoughts had always been on Rose, never realizing the emotions others might feel towards him. "Wonder what she'd think of her other self. That's going to be a bit strange, seeing her," he muttered, squeezing her hand a bit more tightly. "Wonder if there's a version of Donna here too," he wondered aloud. If Martha was as evil on this world as Rose had described...Donna would've been a total nightmare. A slight smirk had to be suppressed, despite the fact that it was going to be very difficult facing off against an evil version of a good friend.

He glanced down at her, catching that brief smile and returning it. Despite her pain, despite the strange and unfortunate situation they found themselves in, he wanted to see her happy. No matter how high the tragedy, if he could get a smile from her...then he knew things would be alright. Hopefully. Maybe. Who knew. At least it gave him a little bit of hope.

As they drew near the SUV, he could sense the faintest of presences. The killer had been there, though he was now long gone...or hiding. Who knew what the man could manage on this world? As Rose told him something was wrong and to wait there, he of course didn't listen. He'd lost her once, he wasn't letting her away from him, not while this other man was about. "Rose, be careful," he said, hurrying after her, taking hold of her arm once he caught up with her.

He took out his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the SUV and the gun, quickly grabbing hold of Rose and forcibly pulling her back from it as she moved to touch it. "NO! It's been tampered with. I...I'm not sure what but I'm getting weird signals from it. Come on, we'll go by foot. I know you're in pain, and I'm sorry, I'll do what I can for you when we get back, but we need to get away from this car and that gun."

Arm around her shoulders, he started to guide her away. No one could be trusted, nothing could be trusted. Strange things were afoot, stranger than normal, and the Doctor found himself at a disadvantage. "I need to know if Torchwood has files on Time Lords, if there are any others in the universe. I need to know how similar and how different they are to me."

The biggest trick would be figuring out how to work the energies of this world. He had his own life force as a power supply, but that was a reservoir for life or death situations only. This was not his world, but there had to be a way to gain an advantage.

"If we see her," Rose interjected quickly. She had no plans on seeing Doctor Jones, mainly because of how she practices her medicine.

She hadn't gotten very far away from The Doctor when he caught up with her and grabbed at her hand, causing her to give him a quick glance. She should have known better than to think he'd just wait in place. He had always run headfirst into danger, at least when she had known him. He had very rarely shown fear for his life, even when he had regenerated into this current form.

Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she gave a slight gasp of surprise as he pulled her away from the rifle. Hazel orbs gazed at him, half annoyed, half understanding. The weapon had been tampered with, which means that he still must be somewhere nearby; the thought caused her gaze to dart around the perimeter of the surrounding area. The hairs on the back of her neck had risen, and she had the clearest sense that someone was watching them.

Shuddering, she allowed him to lead her away from the gun and the SUV, allowing herself to lean against him slightly as her mind spun from the different possibilities, memories, him actually being here and the concussion she was suffering from. She knew that whatever had slammed her in the back of the head had caused a lot of trouble. But, at least now she had her Doctor back with her.

Leaning against him, she put her head on his shoulder as they walked, slowly towards the Hub which was still quite a few blocks off from their current location. They'd pass by Cardiff Bay shortly.

"Hmm?" came a muffled response to his words, lifting up her head to focus on him. Why was she suddenly so tired? The coffee buzz must have worn off. "They have vey few things on Time Lords, actually. But, there is more than one here."

She paused briefly as she tried to figure out how to word all of it. "There's only two that I know of. You…Well, the polar opposite anyway. We call him the Torchwood Killer; long story there. But the other, well…" she gave a small sigh. "I'll let you meet him. He's an ally of mine, helped me through a lot, since dealing with this maniac."

Stopping in her tracks, she glanced back at the SUV and rifle, noting haw far they'd gotten in just a couple of minutes. "Let's go to 10 Downing Street. He should be there by now. If my rifle and SUV were tampered with by the Killer, then it's a good bet to say that the Hub has been compromised too. Downing Street would be the safest place right now. He wouldn't dare touch the President." She had no idea how wrong that conclusion was; no idea that they weren't really safe anywhere, except for a few moments.

"Yeah. If. I've got a feeling that given how this place is going, that's inevitable."

He raised an eyebrow at her annoyed look. This wasn't his world but he knew when to be suspicious. Change of people, change of energies, but the same basic tactics of survival still applied.

He held her close against him as they walked, glancing around them. He began to question if any place around there was safe. With no allies around, this was going to be difficult. He'd won bigger battles before, though really, the biggest one couldn't really be called "winning." Not in his mind. Everyone had lost, there was no victory there.

Glances down to Rose were taken as they walked. She didn't look good, which made sense considering she'd been hit by debris back there. Once they reached a safe haven, he'd try to fix her up in the best way he could. He wasn't a _doctor_-doctor, but he did have some medical training, enough to patch her up enough for now.

"More than one?" he inquired, listening intently as she described the lack of information that Torchwood had, which created a problem since the only way would be through trial and error of things against the enemy to learn of his weakness, plus this other one. "Another ally sounds right helpful about now. Do you know if Gallifrey still exists? Was there a war? Or does this other Time Lord not know?"

He wondered who this other might be a parallel version of. Someone good, proving that not all the Time Lords in this Universe were evil...a good thing.

He nodded in agreement with her about the Hub possibly not being safe, as in truth, no place was likely very safe for either of them right now. "President? Why Rose, movin' up in the world, aren't you?" A Time Lord who was the President. And that's when it struck him, and his suspicion as to just who this man might be began to grow. If he was truly an ally as Rose had said, he'd take one, but if this was indeed his old nemesis...it'd take a lot for the Doctor to trust him.

In the meantime, President Harold Saxon was back in his office at 10 Downing Street, waiting for the report from Torchwood on the latest operation. It was getting bad, very bad, with the Torchwood Killer. The Master considered himself a pacifist, and didn't want to have to take more aggressive actions against this man, but it seemed that it was reaching the point where he had no choice. Torchwood was almost gone, murdered by this man, and now it seemed the Time Lord would have to stand up and take action against his fellow Gallifreyan, even if it meant losing his life. He had sworn to protect Britain, and so he would, whatever it took.

She wasn't sure how to tell him; she knew he partially blamed himself for what happened to his planet, but she didn't think any less of him. He was scared and afraid to die, he did what he had to, to save his own life, that didn't make him a coward in her eyes, it made her proud; if he had never left, she would never have met him and would never have actually lived her life, instead living in ignorance while Earth went to Hell-in-a-hand basket.

"No, Gallifrey doesn't exist here. The Time War happened here too," she answered softly, "As far as I know there are only two Time Lords left, and those are the Torchwood Killer and the Prime Minister."

She gave a small smile as he teased her, meeting his gaze, the humor sparking her eyes to life; this was the Rose he remembered, not the pained woman he met when she awoke. "Well, I had to do something since I was trapped here, huh?" A small chuckle came from deep within her as they changed their direction towards Downing Street.

The smile lasted only about a minute, the humor fading as she remembered the levity of the situation they were in. Pulling out her cell, she hit the speed dial, calling up to Saxon's office, but only getting the voicemail as the receptionist wasn't at her desk.

"Oh bloody Hell, he really needs to get a new secretary," she muttered and then spoke into the phone. "Harold, I'm on my way to Downing Street, to see you. I have grave news. I failed in taking the target down, he was expecting us. My team…Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Tosh are dead. I almost died with them…"

She glanced over at The Doctor as they continued to walk to their destination, still speaking to the voicemail. "I have found a friend, though. He saved my life and I'm bringing him with me. Please, don't be alarmed when you see him. I'll see you in a bit. Rose out."

Hanging up the phone, she put a hand to her head as a dizzy spell overcame her, the cell phone dropping from her hand and breaking upon the ground. "Bloody Hell." It only lasted a few seconds, but she had the sudden realization that she needed medical attention. She'd get the help she needs after the Killer was taken care of.

Shaking it off, she started walking again, leaning against her old friend for support and comfort, deciding to tell him more about the Torchwood Killer. "About the Torchwood Killer…We call him that because he's been going throughout history and killing the higher-ups off one by one. He had basically hid in the shadows doing it, until I came along. Apparently I put a kink in his plans. See, until I got here, he was succeeding very well. And then came me, with knowledge of the Time Lords, because of you, and I was able to help this world fight back. I have saved a lot of lives by derailing his plans. But…"

She trailed off, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall from her reddened eyes. "It wasn't without consequences. Mum, Dad, Tony, Mickey…" her voice cracked at the mention of Tony. "I sat there while I watched him kill my infant brother, Tony." Her eyes drifted up towards him, wondering what his reaction would be.

"Ah," was his soft response as she told him of Gallifrey's fall. Of course. He imagined the Time Lords, were they anything like the ones from his Universe, would have done something about this Torchwood Killer should they have learned of it. This wasn't his world, but it certainly had its similarities. Sadness filled his face, as while he knew it wasn't his Gallifrey here that had been destroyed, it still was an echo of it, of sorts. That was the kind of pain you didn't forget. Ever.

The smile that rose to her face, small as it was, managed to push him out of the brooding look and force a little smile upon his own face. She looked more like herself when she smiled. It was his goal to save this place, and help to bring Rose back to normal. "I suppose so. Good girl. You get a biscuit later," he teased some more, giving her a gentle hug. He remembered their last meeting, on the beach. Oh, how he'd yearned to touch her, to tell her how he felt. He would in time, but not right now. Not yet.

He watched her pull out her phone, listening to the conversation with a grave look on his face. Harold? A Time Lord named Harold. He didn't have arrive at the President's office yet to know whose face he'd see. It was the Master. So they'd switched roles in life in this world, had they? Strange fate.

He frowned as Rose dropped the phone and visibly took a turn for the worst, his grip around her tightening, holding her up as best as he could. "You alright?" he asked softly, waiting until she was okay to start walking again, getting a better hold of her. If memory served him correct, they were almost there.

He watched as a police car flew by, no doubt on its way to the sight of the collapsed building. So many lives lost; it seemed judgment day for all those who would save this world from falling into the hands of evil; only he and Rose-and the Master-remained. Once contact with the President was made, any differences sorted out, he would make sure Rose was kept somewhere safe, and he and the Master would deal with the Killer on their own. He didn't want Rose getting hurt anymore than she already had.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said softly. He'd watched his own family get killed in the wars against the Daleks, and knew the horrible pain of it. Her brother's name brought a touched look to his face as he glanced down into her eyes. He wondered, if she knew his old name, would that have been what the boy had been called? Probably.

"We'll stop him," he reassured her again. "So you're absolutely positive the President is alright?" he asked. Given who it was bound to be, his skepticism was running high.

In the meantime, Harold had returned to his office and listened to the message, his hearts heavy as he heard the news. At least she was alive. The mention of this friend though...he shouldn't be alarmed? Just who was she bringing with her?

As the pair drew nearer, something within Harold's mind began to tingle. Another like him, but all the same not entirely, was coming closer. Something very strange, stranger than usual, was afoot.

When she had gotten dizzy and dropped the phone, she felt strong arms around her, holding her up, keeping her from hitting the ground. She was in bad shape, granted, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from her mission; and that was to eradicate the Torchwood Killer from this world-

By any means necessary.

"Just dizzy, I'll be alright." She said softly as she met his gaze, forcing a smile and small nod at him. He was genuinely worried about her, the way it had been years ago. Even though a part of her wanted to hug him, she had to keep her emotions under wraps. If the Killer had been there and not him, her haywire emotions would have gotten her killed. She's a soldier, damn it, she should know better than to let her emotions get the best of her.

She didn't see the police cruiser speed by, but she heard the wail of ambulances passing shortly after. Her heart jumped in her chest, was it possible that they were still alive? Doubtful.

Hearing him apologize brought the sadness to the forefront, but she quickly pushed it aside, shaking her head slowly, a soft hand placing on his arm compassionately. "Don't be, Doctor. There's nothing you could have done. You had no idea what would happen here. It wasn't even your fault I came here. Don't blame yourself, alright? No matter what has happened here, you're not to blame. I don't blame you for my being here. I don't blame you for my family and friends deaths. If anything, they were my fault. I got careless. When I first met him, I thought he was you and was so excited. I never even thought that there was an alternate version of you, even working for Torchwood, I didn't realize it till it was too late. Their deaths, all of them, are on my hands, not yours."

As she spoke, she allowed a hand to stray to his face, caressing it gently before taking it away and lowering it to her side once more. Glancing away nervously, as she had started to express her feelings for him, she cleared her throat. "We should probably get on our way, Harold is going to be waiting for us, assuming he gets the message."

She started off for Downing Street again, her change in demeanor apparent. She had changed while being here, but her feelings for him remained the same, even with that look-a-like running around trying to kill her and everyone else.

"Yes," she answered to his question about Harold, "he is. He is a good man, Doctor. I think you'd like him. He has taken very good care of me since I met him. And even better care of me since my family…" She took a deep breath and continued, "he's been a true friend through these hard times. Though we do have out differences, and disagreements about how to handle the Torchwood Killer, he is a good friend."

"You're going to need to have that head looked at. I'll do my best with it when we get to the Prime Minister's," he said, looking down into her eyes with the utmost seriousness. Were the circumstances different, he'd worry about her holding off on showing her emotions. Right now though, he could understand it. She'd just lost just about everyone. Except for him. And the Master. Or "Harold."

He frowned as she said it wasn't his fault. He still felt that he should've done something. He should've sensed the other Time Lords in this world, he should've...he should've done something. But things just hadn't worked out, had they? She shouldn't have been stuck in this parallel world in the first place. He should've figured out a way back sooner. He realized he just might be stuck here, but that was the least of his worries right now.

His eyes widened as a thought occurred to him. The Killer was obviously still around, but what if there was a way he could get into the Doctor and Rose's world? The TARDIS was there, so was Donna, and Martha, and the others. If Donna saw him, she wouldn't know any better. The need to find the Killer grew even more desperate.

He looked down at her as she caressed his cheek, frowning at the nervous look. He knew how she felt about him, she knew he knew, why hold back from it? Was it because he had the same face as her greatest enemy? It pained him to see that in her. He loved her, and he wanted his old Rose back. Gritting his teeth for a moment, he continued walking with her. They were on Downing Street now; it was a matter of reaching the right building. He could see it up ahead, the flags out in the front marking it, the armed guards standing at the door. Did they know the enemy? Would they let him in? Psychic paper might not work in this case, if that was the case.

"We'll see about that," he said. He'd caught a glimpse of the Master's face when scanning her mind, but had thought that since the connection wasn't as strong as it might be, he was mixing up his own memories. Seemed it was something totally different then. "What kind of disagreements?"

Back in his office, Harold sensed the other Time Lord as nearly being there. Calling the guards at the front, he told them Rose was coming with someone, and to be sure to let them in. He took a seat at his desk, immediately rising from it and pacing, too antsy to remain seated.


	4. Chapter 4

She couldn't understand why he seemed so hesitant to meet Harold, aka The Master, but she had caught a glimpse in his mind with Harold's face attached to it. She hadn't delved deep enough to know what exactly happened to him, only that a man with the same face was on her home world too. The thought intrigued her, maybe he was as kind and gentle as the man she knows here. Course, she also knew how doubtful that was too. If The Doctor was hesitant, then it meant that something dreadful had happened on her home world since she'd been trapped her.

"Over the fact that I want that maniacal tyrant of a Time Lord to pay for what he did to my family, friends, my team and myself. I want…" She stopped walking and faced him, her face showing her seriousness. "I want him dead. I want justice and revenge for what he's done. Harold doesn't want him dead, but I'll go over his head if I have to, regardless if they're of the same race or not. The Torchwood Killer will pay for his crimes, even if it kills me in the process."

Without waiting, she turned on her heels after speaking, and headed down Downing Street, able to see the building from where they were at. Her stride was purposeful, even with the limp and head wound. She took a beating, but she was more focused on ridding the world of the Killer once and for all; he has lived long enough.

As she approached the gates, the guards saw her, nodding their heads and then their attention focused on The Doctor; guns were pulled up and Rose gave an exasperated sigh. "He's not the Torchwood Killer. He's with me." The guards glanced at each other, unsure, until she spoke again, her voice laced with anger. "I **SAID** he is with me! Now let us pass!"

Lowering their weapons, they let her pass, afraid to get on her bad side, which she had a lot of recently. Taking a breath, she nodded to The Doctor and passed through the gates. Once out of ear shot of the guards, she spoke again. "Sorry you had to see that. Sometimes I have to get authoritative."

Her voice soft, her footfalls not moving fast, but not moving slow, she made her way through the building. Why was she getting more and more nervous as they drew nearer to Harold's office? Why was The Doctor so hesitant about seeing him? What was going to happen when they walked through the door at the end of the hall? Rose had no idea, but for some reason, she had a very bad feeling about this.

When he'd been in her mind, he'd focused mostly on getting to her thoughts, and had opened all the doors to memories they shared, though a few others had been opened, including a few looks at the Harold Saxon of his world. He hadn't let her see what had been done to him, he didn't want her to know about it if at all possible as it would have broken her heart. He might tell her of some of the things the real Master had done on his world, but not more than she really needed to know.

"Ah. Harold sounds a bit like myself. Odd," he muttered. He wondered then, if Harold was the good one, and he was the evil one in this world, had similar burdens been placed upon this President? Definitely not exact ones, but what had his place in the war been? What had the place of the Torchwood Killer been? These questions were mere ones of curiosity, and would have to wait until more important ones were answered.

He held her up some as he felt her stride picking up a bit, wanting to help to get her out of the Killer's possible line of sight as soon as possible. As they got to the gates, his eyes went wide as guns were pulled on him. It had been expected but it was still startling. His hearts pounded until the guns were lowered, his eyes meeting both the guards' as they passed through. "Quite alright," he replied to her little outburst in authority, a tiny little smirk coming across his features, fading quickly before she could see.

As soon as Rose and the Doctor had passed, the guards informed the rest of security they were there, who in turn informed Harold. Still pacing, Harold moved to the front door of the office and left, laser screwdriver in his pocket just to be safe, starting down the hall to meet them. When he saw them, he stopped dead in his tracks.

What in the bloody hell was this?

"Rose," he said, staring at this man who looked exactly like or possibly even was the Torchwood Killer. "Who is this?"

As the Doctor walked with her, he heard the office doors opening, saw Harold drawing near. A twinge of emotion was felt within his hearts, seeing the man alive again. But he mustn't let himself fall prey to false hope. That was too dangerous a thing. This was not the Master, not the one he knew.

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied. "And you're Harold Saxon. Don't worry...I'm not who you think I am. I'm here to help."

Harold was skeptical, but his senses were telling him otherwise. He'd been near the Torchwood Killer, he knew how he felt. This man was similar, but different. How could this be? He looked to Rose again, as if for confirmation, then back to this man. Another Time Lord alive; he must've been the one Rose had spoken of before, the man that she believed the Torchwood Killer had been.

The doors opened and out came Harold to meet them, and he looked as confused and shocked as the guards had been; this caused Rose to bite down on her lower lip a bit, something she hadn't done for quite a while. Hanging onto The Doctor, she regained her sense of balance, or so she had thought, and stepped away from him, taking a single step towards Harold before stopping, her form swaying slightly from being injured.

"Just as he said. He's The Doctor." She paused briefly, glancing between the two men before continuing. "Remember the man I told you about? From my world? This is him. He saved my life back at the warehouse. If he hadn't been pulled through…I would have died."

Her eyes turned down to the ground as she took a staggering breath, now was the time to tell him. "My team, Harold, they're dead. Gwen, Owen, Ianto even Tosh. That maniac shocked them full of something and…I couldn't stop it. I watched as their bodies were dragged into some type of generated cyclone. They're gone, all of them."

Her shoulders straightened a bit as she looked back up at Harold, her eyes filling with anger as she took a shaking step towards Harold, not hiding the venom in her voice. "Do you still want him alive? Huh? He's a murderer and a psycho, he needs to be stopped. And so help me, Harold, if you won't do it then I will. I don't care if I have to die in the process; I will end him!"

Her body was shaking with the strain of its injuries, as well as with her rage. She couldn't stop it, couldn't control it. Closing her eyes, she put a hand to her head and swayed; she was so dizzy and tired, she just wanted to sleep for about 10 years. "I…I'm alright. I just need to sit down for a minute." She said, hoping she'd cut off their worry for her.

The Doctor held onto Rose tightly, feeling her starting to sway a bit, holding her up as best as he could. He had to get her lying down and resting before she got worse. He had a bad feeling that the worst of the day wasn't over yet, as usually it never was, and he wanted her to be at her best strength just in case. He'd do what he could to keep her safe, including sacrificing himself if it came down to that. Hopefully it wouldn't.

Harold eyed the Doctor, unable to believe what he was seeing or sensing. It occurred to him that if they needed to get to the Torchwood Killer's companion, Doctor Jones, this man could be quite useful. Such tactics however seemed to be of the sort that would have been more useful near the beginning of all of this. Now, bigger, more direct actions had to be taken. And it seemed now it was just the three of them.

Harold's face fell as she repeated the list of the dead, eyes lowering a bit before looking back up to her, frowning at the venom in her voice, eyes lowering once again, leaning back slightly as she spat her words at him. He'd seen the fall of Gallifrey, he'd been the one responsible, and he didn't want to kill anymore.

The Doctor watched Harold as Rose moved towards him, a little shocked at the anger and bitterness in her tone, but understanding it. Looking to Harold, he recognized that look on his face, and knew just what he was thinking from it. They were the same, in that sense. Deal with the villain in any way but don't kill them. He saw a frighteningly familiar weariness on this other Master's face.

"I..." Harold started, then stopped. He didn't know. He had absolutely not a clue what to do about this man. He looked up to the Doctor, meeting the others eyes. The Doctor nodded, grunting softly as he pulled up the shaking, swaying, and by now slightly drooping Rose. "I'll need to talk to you about a few things before we figure out a plan. I need to know about the Time Lords. I need to know how similar and how different they are here compared to my world."

Noticing more now how bad Rose looked, Harold quickly moved to one of the chairs by the reception area and brought it over, the Doctor moving her a bit to help her sit down. "I'll have a doctor come and check you out. One that _**I**_ trust," Harold told her, reaching down and squeezing her shoulder. His attention turned again to the Doctor. "I don't think we're that different. You seem similar enough, I could tell what you were even before you arrived here. Something about the energy with you is different, but that might have to do with you being from another universe. That's it."

She wasn't all too focused as Harold brought a chair up and The Doctor sat her down in it. Her head fell over the back of the chair, eyes closed as she took shallow, slow breaths, trying to force the pain to subside; it wasn't working. As Harold spoke to her, she lifted her head slightly, gazing at both of the men. Two men she cared for; one she loved and the other who had become a friend, almost like family to her.

"No," she breathed out, "I don't need a doctor. I'll be fine. I've been running on only a few hours of sleep for the past couple of days, or has it been weeks? Never mind how long it's been. I can still do my job and I fully intend to. I can rest when the maniac is gone, not before."

Stubborn to the end, that was definitely Rose Tyler; always so stubborn, refusing to yield. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head over the back of the chair again, as Harold & The Doctor talked, the words barely registering in her head. That's when she remembered; she told The Doctor that she'd explain about the cyclone-

"Doctor," she groaned out as she lifted her head back up to look at him, eyes pained. "I told you I'd explain how you got here. When I was in the warehouse, fighting with the maniac, he hit a button on a console. The switch activated something and it summoned a cyclone. He ran off and so did I when I knew that I couldn't save my team members. Everything that I could see, that wasn't bolted to the ground, went up into it, before it switched the way it was rotating. I'm not sure what it was, but he had to have done something to make a tear between the worlds…"

"_You can't just go hopping from one galaxy to another; you'll tear them apart."_

She remembered those words all to well. Pushing herself upright a bit more, she sighed and looked to Harold. "I'm not sure what he's up to. But, if The Doctor was pulled through to this world…Could that maniac be trying to get to the other world to destroy it instead? Or maybe both worlds?" She was just speculating now, but by doing that wouldn't the Torchwood Killer would kill himself, along with everyone else. God she couldn't think straight.

Rubbing her face, she opened her mouth to say something else as screams came from down the hall, down from the way they had come. Eyes went wide as she turned in the chair, looking behind her. "What…"

Her voice was cut off by a sudden explosion, the main entrance door literally shattering off of its hinges and flying inwards, causing a scream to come from her as she dove for the floor. She gave a silent thought to how everything seems to be exploding around her. Once the debris stopped raining down, she lifted up her head to see him standing there-

-The Torchwood Killer. The Doctor of this world, and he hadn't come alone either. Heart racing, she stumbled to her feet and towards her two friends, knowing that things had just gotten worse.

"Oh, how sweet, such a tear-jerking reunion. Too bad it's going to end abruptly." The Killer said to all three of them. "I've got the ever insatiable Rose Tyler, my arch-nemesis and, what is this? It would seem myself, as well."

Rose gazed at him for a bit, fighting the urge to run and tackle the offending visitor. There was so much she wanted to do right now to that horrible man, but she was too weak to fight, as much as she wanted to. So much for being safe…

"Back off," she growled at the man as she stood in front of Harold and The Doctor, knowing neither of them would like that. Part of her job, as Torchwood, was to protect Harold, at least in her eyes.

"You're not going to be much of a fight, my dear lady. I have underestimated you though, your rage…It's enticing," he spoke as he walked down the long hallway towards the three of them, his sonic screwdriver in his right hand. From behind him, a couple more people stepped up, following him, but at a distance. Rose recognized them, as she was sure Harold and The Doctor would-

Martha and-

Was that Jack Harkness? She wasn't even aware that he existed on this world. "Jack…" she breathed out, even knowing that she couldn't trust him because he was with the Torchwood Killer. The odds were even now, except for the fact that she had two Time Lords on her side and the Killer was only one.

Both the Doctor and Harold frowned at her, simultaneously, in fact, the exact same expression. Each one happened to catch the look upon each others face. It was eerie how similar they were in this world. Harold still was iffy on trusting this other Time Lord, as it could've been yet another trap. Rose's mind was fragile these days, given how much she'd lost. This could be the Torchwood Killer standing right in their midst, unknown to both of them, suspected only by Harold himself. Rose seemed so hopeful about him though...if this "good Doctor" turned out to be the Torchwood Killer, Harold would drop his pacifistic ways only to destroy him. He hated the idea that upon the Torchwood Killer's death he'd be the last, forever lonely, but it was a pain he'd have to deal with if only to save lives.

"You _**DO**_ need a doctor, Rose. If you're going to continue fighting I insist you get medical treatment. I won't let you go against him in such a weakened state," Harold said firmly to her.

The Doctor kneeled down in front of her, reaching up to take hold of her face with both of his hands as she said his name, holding it in place and checking her eyes, not needing a check of her reflexes based on the multiple times she'd stumbled before. He paused in his examination, listening to her description, frowning. It sounded like whatever the switch had activated had pulled up enough energy to blow a hole right through the void and pull him and all loose items around him right through to here. Just as much energy would be needed to fix it, and he'd be needing the Master's help with that. Sighing, he let go of her face, standing up and looked down at her.

"I imagine that's exactly what he is trying to do, get through to the other world as well. He likely learned of its existence through you. It's a whole 'nother set of targets for him. All the leaders he killed in this world...he gets to kill again."

He and Harold both sharply turned their heads in the direction of the screams, the Doctor immediately hovering over Rose's body to protect her from the debris of the explosion, Harold ducking down beside her. The Doctor moved back once it cleared, turning to see his parallel self standing before them. It seemed they wouldn't get to have that time to plan after all. Not yet, anyway.

Harold's hand had gone into his pocket, laser screwdriver out and ready, drawn quickly like a quick draw Western gunman. He could easily kill him right then and there if he had to, but as always, he wanted to try to find some sort of peaceful resolve, if that was possible.

The Doctor stared at the Torchwood Killer, eyes going behind him to see Martha and Jack standing there, only it wasn't really Martha, nor was it really Jack. It was a troubling sight, but he knew quite well and solidly that they weren't his companions. Still, in the light of recent losses, it was hard to shake feelings sometimes, even if you were a centuries old, experienced and wise Time Lord.

The Doctor took a step forward, moving in front of Rose, reaching behind her to gently push her back, eyes locking upon his evil self's. His brain quickly worked to try to come up with a plan; however, none currently existed that wouldn't involve quite a few casualties. Better planning needed to be had, as he needed the Torchwood Killer alive to figure out exactly what he'd done to tear the hole between the worlds, and how to fix it. There was only one strategy that could be used now, and that was to run, a tactic trickier than usual seeing as the enemy was right there in front of them, and they were in an open hallway. The Doctor stood steadfast. If Harold and Rose could get away, he trusted they'd come up with a plan. Right now though, he had to avoid death from factoring into the current situation.

Quickly, he closed all the doors in his mind, letting only thoughts of malice, false but believably strong, come forth. Malice towards Rose, and the President. "Tsk tsk tsk. Bit messy a tactic, innit? See, I get pulled into this world, I hear about someone else doing my job, and I expect it to be a bit better done, and I get this. Blowing up buildings, blowing up doors, blah blah blah boring. You need originality, you do," he said, stepping forward and right up to the Killer. If the Torchwood Killer tried anything, the Doctor would try his best to stop him. In the meantime, he needed the other two to fend for themselves and get out.

She didn't fight against The Doctor as he pulled her and pushed her behind him. She wanted to, granted, but she knew she was too weak herself. Yeah, sure, Harold was right, she needed medical attention and badly, but they were also going to have their full with those three maniacs. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Harold pull out his laser screwdriver and then watched as The Doctor walked up to the Torchwood Killer. She didn't know what to do as Martha and Jack advanced.

Reaching a hand for The Doctor's arm, she faltered when she heard his words, her jaw dropping open in surprise as she backed away and towards Harold. Blonde hair swayed as she shook her head in shock. She had thought that he was the real Doctor, but she must have been wrong. Could he be another Time Lord from another parallel dimension?

Hazel eyes darted up to Harold briefly and then back to the small, oncoming army.

The Torchwood Killer didn't even blink as his imposter moved closer to him, sensing the hate within his mind. How was this possible? Didn't matter, he'd take the new imposter out as well as the President and Miss Tyler. "The explosions were actually Jack's idea and I give him kudos for it. Me? I have other plans and you've just become part of them." The Killer's voice was harsh, bitter, but he wasn't exposing his true plan, at least not yet. "Martha, Jack, you two get them. I'll take this one…" With that said the Torchwood Killer threw a punch at The Doctor.

Jack rushed towards Harold, semi-automatic armed & raised. Martha came at Rose, seemingly barehanded. It was time to fight now. Rose dodged to the side as Martha punched at her, stumbling and hitting the wall to her side. Bloody Hell, she wasn't strong enough to fight! Oh well, that decision had just been made for her. As Martha came at her once more, Rose propelled herself off the wall, using the speed from the push-off and her weight to slam into Martha; Rose's shoulder connected with Martha's chest, sending them both to the floor.

Putting all of her attention on surviving against Martha, she didn't notice what was happening with Harold or The Doctor, but she could hear it. Rolling across the floor with Martha, she threw an elbow into the woman's face, only then noticing the handgun she was carrying. P_erfect_! Rose reached for Martha's weapon only to be hit with a knee in her stomach, knocking what little breath she had out of her.

Martha took advantage of this and switched the playing fields by flipping on top of Rose. Martha's dark eyes were positively glowing with the evilness that hid within her as she wrapped her hands around the small blonde's throat. "You know, the look on your face when you watched your teammates killed. I loved that," she whispered sadistically to Rose, "I wish I had been there when he killed your family and friends…Especially little Tony. Oh, I bet it was brilliant."

Hanging onto Martha's wrists, trying in vain to pull them away, Rose heard every word uttered by the dark haired woman, her own eyes darkening as she mentioned all of those she lost, especially her little brother. "No…" Rose whispered, losing the air she needed. Driving deep within herself, before she would lose consciousness, she pulled her hands away from Martha's wrists, her hands struggling to find the handgun she had seen earlier. Movements were slowing down, it wouldn't be long until-

Found it! Rose snatched the gun from its holder and flipped the safety off, only to be stopped by Martha, who yanked off of her throat and grabbed the gun. Both women began to struggle with the gun as they managed to get to their feet, Rose getting pinned between her and the wall. The struggle went on, nobody aware of what they were fighting over except for them.

Injured, she wasn't as strong as she should be, but she was still putting up one Hell of a fight. The struggle continued, as Martha pressed closer to Rose, trying to point it at the young blonde's heart, but Rose was pushing with everything she had to get it either aimed away from everyone or at Martha-

_**BANG!!**_

The gunshot reverberated deafeningly through the hallway, both of the women's eyes going wide at the same time; both women slid down the wall, Martha on top of Rose as blood began to pool onto the floor from one of them; both women's breathing became shallow, Rose closed her eyes first, head falling to one side as Martha's did a few seconds later.


	5. Chapter 5

Harold frowned deeply at the words that came from this allegedly "good" Doctor's mouth. However, he couldn't help but suspect the man might be up to something else. In attempting to scan his brain from afar, he got nothing. No other thoughts other than hatred…suspicious hatred that he would've gleaned before. It was a bluff. He saw the look on Rose's face, reaching forward and gently squeezing her arm. Obviously he wasn't going to break the man's game, but he didn't want Rose off and thinking she'd been betrayed yet again. Her heart had broken too many times before.

The thought _'Oh bugger,'_ briefly surfaced then were quickly shoved back in the Doctor's mind; so much for bluffing the guy. Other tactics would have to be used; other currently non-existent tactics, which meant that since there really was no other way out of this, it was going to get unfortunately messy.

He quickly moved back as the Killer took a swing at him, not getting the full brunt of the punch but getting part of it; too many hits to the face today for his liking. Quickly, he moved forward against the imposter, trying to grab at his sonic screwdriver to at least weaken the man's offenses. If Rose and Harold could take care of the other two, hopefully they'd get out. Hell, hopefully they'd fall for the bluff enough to leave him. As long as they were safe and he had a means of contacting them later.

Harold quickly lifted the laser screwdriver and fired at Jack's gun, attempting to disarm him. He had no desire to kill the man, only to render him useless long enough for an escape. Another shot was fired quickly after the shot at the gun was taken, this one aimed directly for the man's chest, not strong enough to kill but certainly strong enough to knock him out for a while, hopefully, as he sensed something else about this man that told him he wouldn't be the average opponent.

The gunshot startled both Time Lords, the Doctor trying to maintain some sort of grip on the Torchwood Killer in his desperate attempts to lessen the threat he posed to the others. He glanced up, eyes widening as he saw Rose and Martha collapsed against each other, a pool of blood surrounding them. "NO!" he shouted, rage and sorrow driving him further, anger contorting his features as he attempted to slam the Killer against the wall, just about ready to kill the man himself. If Rose was dead…his pacifistic side would be very close to finally collapsing, and the true damage he was capable of but had been holding back since the war would be shown to all. The Doctor was a controlled man, he had to be given his situation and his life's course, but slowly his darker side had begun to come out more and more. The final straw was being reached.

Seeing as the Doctor was occupied with the Killer, Harold knew he had to get to Rose and fast if she was indeed still alive, if some chance of her surviving remained. Another shot was quickly fired at Jack, the guilt that the man could possibly die already making his head begin to pound, and he attempted to scurry over to Rose, hoping Jack would go down and stay down so he could do what he could to help her. A hand was placed upon her shoulder, a faint but present pulse found. Still alive. Hopefully that would last.

The Torchwood Killer fought against The Doctor, not yielding the sonic screwdriver, but attempting to turn it on the imposter Time Lord. Meanwhile Jack's gun being shot out of his hands didn't phase him, but the successive shot did. It hit him in his broad chest causing him to hit the ground. Not dead, but barely scathed by it.

The Torchwood Killer grinned at The Doctor, believing that Rose had taken the bullet. Didn't matter which one had though, he would have taken Martha out later out, just for the sport of it. A part of him prayed Rose would survive, so that he could finish her off himself. The Torchwood Killer laughed as The Doctor fought with him, that devilish grin never fading from his face.

"Doctor, you disappoint. You should never become attached to one of your companions. It's too bad that you'll never get to say goodbye to her too. Of course, I may let you watch her torture." The Torchwood Killer's grin got bigger as he pushed against The Doctor, still not yielding the sonic screwdriver.

"You should have seen what I have done to that little blonde. It was easy trying to pretend to be you; it was so easy to do a lot of things that you could only imagine, doing to her. She's not half bad either. Maybe, assuming she's not dead, I'll keep her for a play-thing." The Torchwood Killer laughed sadistically as he implied that something sexual had happened between Rose and him; hey, he was trying to get under this Doctor's skin, right? Now it's time to see if it would work.

"You'll have to do better than that," Jack muttered as he rose back up to his feet, only to have another blast slam him and sending him flying back into a nearby wall; his body collapsed on the floor.

Both women were slumped against the opposite wall, the pool of blood expanding underneath the two. Rose was trapped under the weight of Martha's body, still alive, but breathing very shallowly. Whether this was due to all the trauma and lack of sleep she'd gotten lately, or the struggle…Or even both, wasn't apparent, yet.

As Harold checked her pulse, Rose gave a small cough, eyes struggling to open, fighting for her to regain consciousness. In attempting to struggle back to reality, Martha's body fell off of her, showing Rose's clothes stained with blood, but to the naked eye it couldn't be told whose blood it actually was, at least not yet.

The bullet hole in Martha's abdomen was hidden, as she was lying face first on the floor; her breathing even shallower than Rose's, but still alive, barely. The shot hadn't made a deadly wound in the young woman, but it hadn't exited either; Martha still had a chance at survival. The handgun Martha had been carrying, however, was now shown gripped tightly in Rose's hand.

Fluttering open and closed, Rose managed to get her eyes to open slightly, seeing Harold's face beside her, a soft, yet pained, smile gracing the corners of her mouth. However, as quickly as it had come it vanished, taken by a look of horror and surprise, "…look…out…" she gasped out to Harold as she saw Jack rising back up and coming for the two of them.

Trying to lift the gun, Rose thought that it had seemed so heavy, when it had just been her weakened physical state, and her hand fell back to the floor. She struggled harder to stay in reality, trying not to succumb to the darkness. Using the floor as an aiming trajectory, she lifted the muzzle up slightly, and prayed that she could hit Jack.

Lips pursed into a tight line, she gazed at the oncoming man. "Goodbye, Jack…" she whispered as she pulled the trigger. She didn't know about Jack's immortality, at least not yet, but she had missed anyway, the flying bullet going wide and only grazing Jack's arm. Rose looked at Harold with that ever, 'I'm so sorry' look and she couldn't fight anymore, she was too weak.

Jack flinched and stopped as he looked down at where the bullet had grazed him. After a few seconds he looked over at Rose, ignoring the fact that Harold was right beside her, his eyes ablaze with rage. Bending over, Jack picked up his semi-automatic and aimed it at the pair.

This felt like a pointless struggle. The Torchwood Killer's strength was an equal match to his own, and all they were doing was shoving and wrestling. Desperation flooded the Doctor's mind once the gunshot went off, the situation growing more and more dire by the second. This was a battle that wasn't going to be won. The Doctor knew it, and he suspected Harold and likely Rose knew it as well. There was only one option left: Run.

First he had to get them an advantage. Something to distract the Torchwood Killer and Jack. Martha was down at least, a casualty he hated to see even if she was evil, but necessary. One thing he'd learned about war was that sometimes casualties couldn't be avoided. He tried to fight against that as much as he could, tried to preserve as much life as possible, but sometimes...it was truly impossible.

He tried his best to ignore the other's words, not answering them. It was all a psychological tactic, quite basic in its execution, though strong enough to hit a person at their core if they didn't prepare themselves well enough. The Doctor's mind was being made slightly more fragile with Rose down and possibly dead, but it wasn't broken yet. The desire to break his pacifistic ways tripled at the insinuation he'd raped Rose...but he couldn't break. If she was dead, he had to stay strong and beat this man, if only to honor her memory. At that thought, he began to regain his mental composure. Now was not the time to lose it.

"You...are _**NOT**_ going to win this," he said firmly as he summoned up every last bit of physical strength and shoved the Torchwood Killer hard, grabbing hold of the end of the other's sonic screwdriver and attempting to force it downwards while reaching for his own screwdriver, pulling it out and trying to aim it properly at his other self, pressing the button. The blast, should he be successful, would not cause major damage to the Torchwood Killer, but it'd be enough of a sonic boom of sorts to at least temporarily daze him. Something just long enough to let them run.

Harold was relieved as the blasts from his laser screwdriver sent Jack flying into the wall. He had sensed the man's immortality once he'd drawn near, so he knew any murder would at least not really be murder. The laser screwdriver was capable of a lot more damage...should the man come near again, he'd feel the full force of it.

He stayed hovered over Rose as she fired at Jack as the immortal got up and drew near, Harold's screwdriver aimed and ready should she miss...as she did. He moved in front of her after her missed firing, attempting to shield her body from any fire Jack might succeed in. As the other man aimed the semi-automatic at them, Harold pressed down on the button on the screwdriver, holding it and letting the energy build up as it shot at Jack. Soon as the man was down, he was getting Rose and taking her to the safe hold he'd help build below the offices. He trusted the other Time Lord, the good one that was, would manage somehow. He'd at least get Rose to safety, then come back and try to help.

The sudden burst of energy from his imposter caused him a momentary lapse in concentration as the Torchwood Killer felt his back slammed up against the wall, his sonic screwdriver pointing downwards. Brown eyes flashing with hatred, he fought, in a futile attempt, to bring it back up. He had underestimated how much that tactic would have enraged the good Doctor. And that's when he felt it, or more less heard it.

"Aaaahhhhh…" He shouted, crying out as the sonic boom occurred between the sonic screwdrivers, releasing his imposter and falling to his knees, his hands over his ears.

Meanwhile, after Rose's shot only had grazed Jack, seemingly making him mad, she struggled to remain conscious as Harold fired his laser screwdriver at the furious man; the blast hit his semi-automatic caused it to heat up and then explode as the energy output kept increasing.

This act caused Jack to go flying backwards, a part of the energy flowing through the gun and into him. Hitting the opposite wall, not far from The Doctor's location, he slid down it, seemingly dead. But he would be alive here in just a few short minutes. It would be hard to keep him down.

While Harold was busy with firing at Jack, Martha stirred on the floor, opening her eyes. Glancing over at Rose, she saw the weakened blonde was having trouble keeping her eyes open, fighting to just remain conscious; this caused a smirk to form on her lips as she stealthily slid a single hand into the pocket of her doctor's gown, her other hand covering the bleeding bullet wound.

Thinking she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, Rose let her head fall in that direction, seeing Martha awake and moving. Rose opened her mouth to shout, but nothing came out. Unable to turn her head back towards Harold, whose back was facing her, she vainly tried to reach out and touch him, her hands always missing their mark. With her other hand, Rose attempted to shift the handgun to aim it at Martha, but she was too slow.

Martha, seeing Rose was trying to draw attention, smirked more as she withdrew a syringe out of her pocket. Flicking the plastic cap off with one finger, she shifted slowly towards Rose as the young blonde tried desperately to get help; it was a futile effort, to say the least.

Close enough now, she could hear the labored breathing of the blonde as she drove the needle into Rose's arm and depressed the green fluid out and into the blonde's body. As she did so, she leaned her head by Rose's ear, whispering to her, "I'm not dead yet. I'm only getting better."

Rose let out a soft cry as the syringe was jabbed into her arm, watching helplessly as the green fluid went into her bloodstream, hearing those menacing words from Martha's lips. A single tear managed to slide down her left cheek and fall to the ground as her body began to tremble from the drug, or whatever it was that Martha had just given to her.

"Doctor…Harold…help…" Rose pleaded in a voice that was below a whisper, barely able to register through all the drama in the corridor happening at once. And then her body began to seizure.

The Doctor felt grim satisfaction as the blast from his sonic screwdriver hit the Torchwood Killer, watching as the imposter fell and covered his ears, the Doctor taking his opportunity to move over and snatch away the other's sonic screwdriver while the man was weakened. The less power the guy had in the future, the better. Pocketing it, he glared down at him. "Your days are numbered," he mumbled, before turning to where Jack, Harold, Rose and Martha were.

Harold flinched slightly as the gun blew up but kept the laser at the man, holding it on him for a long moment even after he was down, a shaky breath taken and exhaled as he lowered the beam. He glanced over to the Doctor, making eye contact with him, then turning around to face Rose, eyes widening as he saw Martha finishing injecting Rose with some green fluid.

He quickly grabbed a hold of Martha and shoved her away, taking out the syringe and tossing it to the floor. The Doctor had made his way over to his side, taking hold of Rose and pulling her up, not an easy task as her body writhed and spasmed, the force of it causing him to drop her. "What did you inject her with?!" the Doctor roared at Martha, taking a hold of Rose's head and holding it as still as he could, Harold at her feet and trying to hold her down.

"We can't stay, we have to get somewhere safe," Harold snapped at him, getting a wild, angry look from the Doctor in return. "My office," Harold said, seemingly unphased by the Doctor's anger.

The Doctor looked down to Martha, then back at Jack and the Torchwood Killer, looking to Harold and nodding. It was quite difficult, but they managed to each take a hold of an end of Rose, the Doctor at her head, Harold at her feet, lifting up the seizuring girl and starting to hurry towards his office with her between them.

Once inside, the Doctor kicked the door shut with his foot, bringing Rose over to a couch and sitting down next to her as Harold moved to a closet in the corner, opening the door then taking his screwdriver to what looked like a hidden bookshelf, firing at one of the books then pushing the bookshelf forward. "It's a panic room. I designed it; they're not getting in there. Least till we can figure out some sort of plan."

He moved over to the Doctor and Rose again, his fears as to what was wrong with the girl increasing. Perhaps a brain scan would reveal just what it was since it was having neurological effects. It didn't _**FEEL**_ like she was dying, not yet, but it wasn't good whatever it was. Taking a hold of the end of her, the Doctor doing likewise, they carried her through the hidden passageway, into the 13' x 13' solidly walled room, which contained a bed and various supplies and non-perishable foods and whatnot. Rose was set down on the bed, and Harold moved to lock and secure the door. They were safe for now, but trapped all the same.

The Doctor sat by Rose, putting both his hands alongside her face, going into her mind to try to calm her and figure out what the neurotoxin or whatever it was, was doing to her. "Come on Rose, fight it. You have to fight it."

As he went into her mind, he sensed something strange, foreign, alien. Whatever poison had been injected into her was not a standard poison.

Martha fell over as Harold shoved her away, a cry of pain as she hit the floor, jostling the bullet wound in her abdomen. Even through the pain, though, Martha's smirk never fully faded. For the injection she had just given Rose was part of the plan, the plot between the three of them; this green fluid was something that would either change Rose forever-

-Or kill her.

As The Doctor screamed at her, she couldn't stop the maniacal laugh that escaped from her throat, as the Torchwood Killer began to slowly get his bearings. Dark brown eyes connected with The Doctor's for the briefest of moments, her voice dark, "wouldn't you like to know, Doctor."

Martha's laughter followed them down the hall as Jack came back to life, gasping for his breath of sweet oxygen and the Torchwood Killer stood up, shaking his head slightly. The Torchwood Killer noticed his sonic screwdriver was gone and condemned the imposter for taking it from him. Oh how he was going to have fun putting those three out of their misery.

Even though she was seizing on the floor, she vaguely heard The Doctor & Harold talking, her hazel eyes darting about. She was still completely aware through all of this, able to hear them and follow them with her eyes, but unable to respond to them, unable to cry out for help.

She watched, helplessly, as she was moved into Harold's, ever familiar, office and then into the panic room he had designed. Laid down on a bed, her eyes pleaded with The Doctor's silently. The pain was so intense, but she couldn't do anything about it. It was almost as bad as the pain the Time Lords felt when they regenerated. His voice, he was speaking to her, but she was unable to speak to back.

"_Doctor, help me…" _She never spoke out loud, but it was in her mind and it somehow managed to link with both of the Time Lords' minds in the room; possibly shocking them? Startling them? She wasn't even aware, fully, that she had done that.

The green fluid, the alien injection that Martha had given her was doing so much to her body. It was alien DNA, alien blood; it would normally kill any human infected with it in a matter of minutes, but it was doing something else to Rose-it was changing her on the cellular level. Could it be her many years traveling with The Doctor? No. Could it be the different immunities she had received through her different travels? No. So what was happening?

What was happening wasn't so easily explained. But it was combining to trace amounts of something within her DNA itself. See, years before, when she had been only 19 years old, she had looked into the heart of the TARDIS to save the man she had fallen in love with; taking it within herself. But the energy, the power, would have killed her if The Doctor hadn't taken it within himself, killing his 9th incarnation and regenerating anew.

That's what the alien DNA had found. It had found the trace amounts of that residual energy; the energy that had embedded itself into her DNA, the energy that The Doctor hadn't been able to pull from her, missing it totally.

Because of that she was changing, mutating at the cellular level. As The Doctor looked into her mind, it began to reveal itself. The energy from the heart of the TARDIS showed itself, fighting and then combining with the alien DNA, bonding permanently, forever changing her. The process was quickly working its way down the many different strands, changing sequences. It was enhancing her-but was this for the better? What was she going to be when the process finished? Would she still look like herself? Or would she look alien now? Only time would tell…

After a few minutes Rose's mouth opened, a piercing scream emitting from deep within her soul as her body arched upwards uncontrollably and then fell back onto the bed, eyes closing. The seizing had stopped. The process was now complete.

Harold crossed his arms and stood over them, watching intensely as the Doctor tried to get through to her, trying to find out what he could. His knowledge of science was there, but on a medicinal level, well...not so much.

The Doctor continued to hold her, his thumbs caressing the soft skin of her face as he held her head, eyes closed as he searched, the voice resounding in his head, her cry for help. "I'm trying," he sighed, unaware that Harold had heard it too, the other Time Lord looking both worried and confused, sitting on the chair by the bed, watching them closely, his hand resting by Rose's head.

"I don't know what this is," The Doctor muttered as he began to see further within her, the traces of energy of the TARDIS still alive, mixing with the alien virus. He'd never seen a reaction like this before, but it didn't seem to be weakening her. On the contrary...she was becoming stronger. Much stronger.

"What's happening?"

The Doctor didn't answer at first, holding onto her and staying inside of her mind as the change happened. It was a bit jarring, quite strange, and extremely fascinating. He didn't recognize the alien energy, guessing it was native to this universe only, which was quite possible. Or it was a parallel version of something he did know, but couldn't recognize in this form. Hopefully nothing malicious; if it was, he'd do everything within his power to drive it out of her. For now it was helping though, and for that he appreciated it.

"She's regenerating. Not quite like us, but not too different. I'm just not sure what she's regenerating into."

He startled and let go as she screamed, eyes wide open, hands removed from her as she arched upwards, grabbing a hold of her hands to try to steady her and calm her down. A sense of completion lingered around her, and as the Doctor laid his hands upon her and entered her mind once more, he could feel it. All was still, functioning on a slightly new level, but settled down.

He sighed, looking up to the very, very worried looking Harold, then back down to her, letting go of her head and shivering. Mind linking wasn't something he particularly enjoyed doing on a frequent basis, as the psychological impact it could have on a person could be damaging, but in this case it had been necessary.

"Rose, can you hear me?" he said to her, holding onto her hand and squeezing it tightly, not quite sure what to expect. Would she be simply enhanced, or would her will be bent and twisted to make her follow the will of the Torchwood Killer. It wasn't Time Lord chemistry or technology of any sort he knew of, but in this universe, so much more was possible.


	6. Chapter 6

Lying on the bed, Rose began to dream; she could see her blood flowing with each beat of her heart, and then she saw deeper, past the individual red and white blood cells all the way to her DNA strands and then, even deeper than that, all the way to the molecular makeup of her own DNA. She saw the brightly glowing bits of the heart of the TARDIS and then the green DNA combining with it. It was a fascinating process, painful but fascinating nonetheless. And then she was even deeper into the subatomic, watching as each of the subatomic particles of her body danced around each other-

Then she heard a familiar voice and someone squeezing her hand. She didn't want to leave this place, it was so peaceful, but she was being drawn out, back to reality, nonetheless. Consciousness. Her eyes flew open as she gasped for breath, her lungs taking in the precious oxygen needed to sustain her life force. And then she saw them, both of them, standing over her seemingly…She couldn't really put a description to the looks on both of their faces…Her former love and her friend. Blinking in confusion she realized that she was in Harold's panic room.

Sitting up, she got dizzy and let herself drop back to the bed, her free going to her head. Why did she feel like she had been hit by a Mac truck? A groan of slight pain and annoyance came from her throat as she blinked some more and glanced at her two friends, still ever confused.

"What...What happened? Where am I? The last thing I remember was…" Rose squeezed her eyes shut, a flash of pain coursing through her entire body causing her to gasp as the recent memories flashed through her mind. It all went by so quickly-

From the warehouse, watching her teammates die to nearly dying herself. To The Doctor saving her life and the hurry to get to Downing Street all the way to the encounter in the hallway and getting stabbed with a syringe by Martha.

"Ugh, I feel bloody awful. What was that she injected me with?" She groaned out softly. "I feel as if someone beat me with a two-by-four, or something to that effect. Ah, ow."

Outside of the panic room, the Torchwood Killer and Jack Harkness tended to the injured Martha Jones. They decided to retreat a bit, believing full well that the alien DNA would kill Rose. As they were leaving the building, though, the Killer sensed something else, something (or someone) new there. How was that possible? His dark brown eyes gazed back at Harold's office, narrowing ever so slightly.

"What is it, Doctor?" Jack asked the Torchwood Killer.

"Nothing," he replied, "it's nothing. Come on, let's get out of here and regroup."

"You sense it too, don't you?" Jack asked the man. "You sense something new."

"Yes, I do. I just don't know what it is yet," the Torchwood Killer said in response, and then the three of them left, to come back and fight anew; they had to tend to Martha and figure out a better strategy for taking down the two Time Lords and Rose.

Waiting for Rose to awaken, the Doctor didn't let his eyes stray from her face. "If she shows any signs of hostility, she'll need to be restrained. If not, she needs to be watched closely, least until we figure out exactly how she's changed and if it's going to get her to work against us," he said to Harold, who sighed in return.

"Yeah. So, what course of action do you have planned, if any, Doctor? Because honestly I haven't the slightest and I've no intention of hiding away while the Torchwood Killer continues to terrorize people. There'll be real problems if he manages to get into your world." Harold's intense stare remained on the Doctor, still finding it so strange to see this man before him who looked exactly like his old childhood friend turned enemy, yet wasn't. It was quite a mind-reeling experience, even for a Time Lord.

"Not sure yet. I want to give him a choice, though. End the assassinations and remain with you as prisoner, or die."

"A choice…that's what I've been trying to give him all along. I'm surprised you're not of Rose's mindset. I guess you and I are more alike than I imagined."

"Yeah," the Doctor muttered, his focus now entirely going back to Rose as she opened her eyes and gasped, sitting up then laying back. No visible effects yet.

Leaving the Doctor to focus on Rose, trusting the man to it for now, Harold stood up and moved to the viewing screen by the door, looking out into the hall. He saw Jack rising to his feet, the Torchwood Killer along with him, going to Dr. Jones, a surprise to Harold as he'd thought the girl would be dead by now for sure. He stared into the Torchwood Killer's eyes on the screen as he saw him look back to them on their way out, tensing. He couldn't hear their words but could see their lips moving. Something had them confused…perhaps something in the favor of Harold and the other two.

The Doctor gave Rose a bit of a smile as she awoke, expression turning a bit more serious as she asked questions. "I'm not sure what she injected you with, but it was something alien. It caused your cells to completely restructure themselves, a bit like what happens when a Time Lord regenerates. I watched from inside your mind…it found residue from when you absorbed the energy from the vortex. You're changing, but I'm not quite sure into what. Does anything feel different?"

The Torchwood Killer continued to gaze at Harold's office a bit longer, eyes narrowing to small slits on his face as he tried to figure out what was going on, yet the sound of oncoming sirens began to wail in the distance. Jack's voice became more worried, "We have to get out of here, sir. If we don't…"

"Alright. Alright, let's go. Grab Martha and follow me." The Torchwood Killer's gaze lingered a bit longer and then he turned, the tan trench coat flying out and up as he headed down the hallway and out the gaping hole that used to be the entrance, Jack carrying the injured and bleeding Doctor Jones behind him.

In the panic room, however, Rose was beginning to look better; still a bit on the pale side, a bit malnourished but better nonetheless. Her hand moved away from her head as she gazed at The Doctor in confusion, not remembering anything of the dream she had just had moments ago.

"Alien? Wait, the time vortex? Doctor," she said quietly as she propped herself with one elbow, swaying slightly. "I thought that you took all of it out of my system. That's what you had told me, that you took the energy into yourself, because it was killing me. And then…" She didn't need to finish that sentence since they both knew what had happened to him after that fact.

As The Doctor mentioned her changing, she scooted towards the wall, using it to prop herself up into a sitting position, and looked down at her hands, confusion spreading across her pale features. "No, not really. I mean," she glanced up to him, a smile attempting to tug at the corners of her mouth with a dry laugh.

"_I am a bit thirsty." _She had thought those words in her mind, unaware that the two Time Lords would be able to hear them. _"What is happening? What does he mean I'm changing? I feel fine, don't I? Wait, why don't I hurt now? Where is the pain? Oh God, am I in shock?! What's happening?!"_

Her mind was panicked, racing at a thousand miles per hour; the thoughts shifting from one thing to another so quickly, that it would make _**almost **_anyone else dizzy. Hazel eyes lifted and looked at The Doctor and then to Harold, whose only name she knew as, The Master. The Master of what exactly? She didn't know, he never talked about Gallifrey, only having told her once that that's where he was from.

Harold continued to watch the screen until they were completely out of the hall, hitting a few buttons to check around the building, including the roof, satisfied as they continued on their way. Some time had been bought, though not much. Hopefully whatever had been done to Rose wouldn't hinder anything, whatever plan they came up with. Once they were out of sight from the screen, he picked up the phone on the wall and dialed out, speaking quickly to his Defense Minister, telling him what was going on and letting him know he was alright, and that the city needed to be on the lookout for the Torchwood Killer, as he fled. He instructed him to keep an eye around 10 Downing Street, but not intrude, as plans were being made that he needed to be alone with a 'special defense committee' of his. Despite protests, the Minister eventually gave in, and Harold hung up the phone. If the army could give some protection to the rest of the city and keep an eye out for any odd occurrences, then he, the Doctor and Rose could focus on just the Torchwood Killer.

As Rose sat up, the Doctor moved a bit closer to her, eavesdropping only momentarily on Harold's call before turning his attention back to Rose. "Well, I did take it out of you, but apparently a very, very teeny tiny bit of residue was leftover, undetectable by myself until just now as the DNA found it. It may have helped sort of...work against whatever effect was intended. I imagine he'd have you dead by now if he could help it."

Glancing over to Rose, Harold heard the words going through her mind. Going into one of the storage bins that had some bottles of water in it, he brought it over to her, concern growing as the girl panicked. "Rose, try to stay calm," he said to her softly, glancing over to the Doctor with a questioning look, who merely nodded in return. No words were needed; in that they could both hear her thoughts so clearly, some of the changes were becoming more obvious. She was becoming like them, at least somewhat.

Taking Rose's hand, the Doctor gave it a gentle squeeze, then began to speak to her with his mind. _"Well apparently you've developed telepathy. I can hear you in my mind as clearly as you can hear me. The changes may be purely psychic at this rate. If you're worried about turning into some strange thing, I don't think I'd worry, as your cells would've shifted your appearance already. So you're still Rose Tyler, just...enhanced."_

Harold could hear her questions about his name, and about Gallifrey. He paused, holding the doors in his mind closed for a moment before deciding and opening them, letting her see into him more. Though he wasn't entirely aware of it, as while he could hear Rose's thoughts he couldn't easily pry into the Doctor's, his past mirrored that of the Doctor's, right up to the destruction of Gallifrey, leading into his decision to become President of Britain in order to try to protect the world from the hostile alien threats beginning to come at it, so that while his home was gone, the other planet he was fond of could hopefully survive.

"Yeah, he does want me dead, because he claims that my being here interfered with his _plans_."

A stunned look spread across her face as her hand wrapped around the bottle of water that Harold gave to her. How had he known? What is going on here? Hazel orbs darted between the two men, the two Time Lords, her confusion growing now. "Calm?! How am I supposed to stay calm?! The Torchwood Killer tries to kill me by having Martha inject with me some sort of alien DNA and now I find I'm going to change? And you want me to stay calm?!"

All of this was, almost, too much for her to handle. No, that was wrong, she'd been through worse, hadn't she? This was all, a bit insane. Something was so off here, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Something was happening to her, and she was unaware of most of it, even the telepathic ability that was coming from her.

But not for much longer-

The Doctor squeezed her hand as she went to take a sip of water from the bottle, with her other hand, stopping when she heard his voice inside of her head. Her hand stopped in mid air, the bottle stopping right before her open lips, eyes going wide and then the bottle dropped from her hand, falling to the floor and spilling water all over the place.

Rose yanked her hand away from The Doctor's grasp, trying to push herself away, but unable to as her back was to the wall. She was thoroughly freaked out now; her eyes darted between the two men and the door, knowing she'd never make it, but darting nonetheless.

"Wha-" She stopped herself before saying anything more. His voice, well his thoughts, were so calm, but it was very disconcerting for her. So much wasn't making sense and it was terribly confusing.

As she looked at Harold, she felt something odd and then, suddenly, she was seeing into his mind; his memories had become open for her. Her eyes went even larger, if that was even possible, as she wasn't able to control this new gift that had been given to her. Squeezing her eyes shut, after a few seconds, she pleaded silently for it to stop-she couldn't handle it.

"Well then. He's failed in killing you. By bad luck on his part, and by your will," the Doctor said a bit softly, smiling fondly at her. When this was all over, depending on how it ended, he'd take her somewhere peaceful. Even if it was some lonely little field in the middle of nowhere, stuck on this planet, he'd take her where they could just have a little peace, and talk about the things he had wanted to talk to her about, the things he'd wanted to say for so long but had yet to get the chance to.

Harold managed not to flinch as she blew up at him, though it was a hard task in holding that back. He was trying to stay calm himself. He had absolutely no plans on how to capture T.K. and was still fighting with himself, inside his mind, if he wanted to carry out Rose's and other people's desires and try to execute the man. The whole situation was so disastrous, seemed SO impossible. He knew how to remain calm and not panic when everyone else was, but still...this could be the end of things. "I just meant....try to stay calm despite it. Panicking could only further aggravate things. You need to try to focus."

The Doctor's eyes widened as Rose suddenly freaked out over his voice in her head, sighing and grabbing her hands again, moving close up to her. "Shh, shh, shh. It's alright. You'll get used to it, I promise. Hopefully. It's just a new ability...you're an even stronger telepath than the Master and myself. This is a good thing, you can use it to help us. Just close your eyes and focus. It'll be overwhelming for a while at first, but you'll learn to control it. I'll help."

Harold could feel her inside his mind, keeping one or two doors closed that she didn't need to know, but letting her get the whole story. As she started to react in fear, he slammed the doors shut, taking a seat next to her and sighing. "So what now Doctor? We can't stay in here forever. We need to find him."

The Doctor gave her hands another squeeze, then let go, standing up. "I'm going alone to find him. You stay here with her. If something goes wrong, I'll trust you to do what I can. Rose...if I need help, I'll call to you. Just keep your mind open and listen for me."

She felt someone grab at her hands, moving closer to her and then the doors in Harold's mind slammed shut on her, giving her the peace she needed. A deep, shuddering breath in and her body slumped slightly, as she relaxed, no longer seeing people's memories or hearing voices inside of her head, feeling someone sit next to her.

Slowly her eyes opened back up and met The Doctor's gaze, but briefly, as she glanced down at their intertwined hands and fingers. A smile played at the corners of her mouth as she remembered what it had been like before, on the adventures with him. Her memories of him had been so happy, except for that one night; that fateful night at Torchwood One, in London. Her smile faltered at that memory and then vanished from her face as she brought her gaze back up to The Doctor.

Staying quiet, she looked between the two men, literally having to rip her gaze away from The Doctor to look at Harold; she didn't want him out of her sight, not again. What if something happened? She couldn't bear losing him again. And then those words came from his lips as he squeezed her hands and let go-

Those words caused Rose's head to snap back in his direction, blonde hair flying until her eyes settled on his form. Without a thought, she was on her feet and grabbing The Doctor's arm, eyes firm on his, lips pursed in a tight line.

"No." She rarely ever had told him no, but this wasn't his world and it was _**her**_ job to take the Torchwood Killer out, not his. She wasn't going to let him do this, not alone. "It's _**my**_ job, Doctor. _**Not**_ yours. I can't let you go off and try to find him, much less face him on your own. I am Torchwood now, the last surviving member, thanks to him. **I** have to take him out."

Her eyes flitted over to Harold, silently pleading with him to order The Doctor to say, unsure if he would. "I don't need a babysitter. Sure, fine, whatever, I'm changing. I don't care. If he goes, I go. It's as simple as that." Her voice was as firm as her gaze, refusing to yield. Harold knew why she didn't want The Doctor to go off by himself, hell The Doctor probably did too, but she wasn't going to stay caged up and looked after. If she had things her way, she was going with The Doctor and her mind was made up.

The Doctor watched her face as she calmed, eyes looking into hers for that brief moment, catching the barest of smiles upon her face, bringing a slight one to his own. There she was, the Rose he knew before. She was still the same girl, changed a bit but the same. It was a little like when he'd regenerated. He'd seen how upset she was, but she'd adapted, the feelings between them stronger than ever. He'd try his hardest to show her happiness once again. Oh, the adventures they'd had before. Even in the face of danger, fun had been had. Now though....everything was changing.

Harold wasn't too keen on the Doctor going alone, as he knew this foe better than the other Time Lord did and wanted to be there to stop it. It was his job to protect this country and this world, and therefore he wasn't about to sit back while this other man went on a suicide mission. He was about to speak when Rose began to protest, and understandably so.

The Doctor stared into her eyes, frowning. "We still don't know all the effects of the changes of that chemical yet. Even if it's surpassed my initial suspicions and is seeming to be more useful than damaging, it's still unpredictable at this rate and that's a huge risk in going back out there. Rose...I need you to listen to me and trust me on this. Please."

Harold could hear her pleading in his head, doubting that even if he _DID_ order the Doctor that the man would listen to him. He could refuse to stay behind himself. "You're not going alone. This is a fight that needs as much force on our side as it can get. Two Time Lords against one. And perhaps Rose could be of help. You, yourself, said she could use the telepathy to help us."

The Doctor frowned, staring at Harold before turning his eyes to Rose. "Hmm...hmm. I wonder...alright then. We'll all go together. Rose, I need you to get into the Torchwood Killer's mind. Find out what you can for a weakness, and if all else fails, you know how to speak into minds. Flood his. Overwhelm him. Show him all of your pain. It won't take him down entirely but it'll be enough to throw him off so the Master and I can do what we need to," he instructed her. No, he wasn't confident on whether or not all her new abilities had manifested, or how they'd go once she got out there, especially when she got around the Torchwood Killer, but he knew that underneath it all she was still his Rose, and he trusted her.

Harold moved to the door, readying to enter the security code to let them out. "Right. So are we ready then?"

The Doctor looked to Rose. "Ready?" he asked, holding out his hand to her once more.

Releasing The Doctor's arm, she crossed hers over her chest as he argued with her about letting her go, her eyes on Harold's and then drifting back to The Doctor's. "I do listen and I do trust you, but I'm not exactly the same girl you knew before. Maybe, in the past, I'd obey, but I won't now. You're on a parallel world, Doctor, our world. Harold and I have faced this man more than you." What she didn't say is that she might be able to figure out his moves now, with this gift that he accidentally gave to her. "It's a risk I'm willing to take."

She had spoken matter-of-factly, giving the facts, but keeping her mind closed to intrusion. She may just get the hang of this yet. When Harold spoke, she glanced back at him, a grin forming when he stood by her, telling The Doctor he wasn't going alone. She turned back to The Doctor, that triumphant grin on her face. It was settled, then, he wasn't going to go alone.

Her grin changed as The Doctor spoke now, the grin changing to an almost sadistic smirk; she'd been wanting to make him pay for what he had done to her family, friends and herself. "Oh, trust me," she said, her voice taking on a slightly dark undertone. "That won't be a problem."

Harold spoke, which she only half heard as she was lost in her thoughts, thinking about how much she was going to enjoy making the Torchwood Killer pay for his crimes against humanity. Yet, when The Doctor spoke to her, holding out his hand, she broke out of her reverie and looked down at his hand.

A broad smile came to her face, the same exact smile she used to always carry around him; the smile of happiness and joy, even in the midst of grave danger. Her hazel eyes sparkled as she met his gaze and then grasped his hand, squeezing it gently as she stepped up beside him. "Ready."

Meanwhile, out on the streets, the Torchwood Killer & Jack were busy trying to avoid the military and police, while carrying an injured Martha to safety. "We have to get out of here," Jack exclaimed breathily.

"You tell me this, why?" The Torchwood Killer glared at Jack, feeling him to be almost incompetent. "I already know this!" He was furious that the imposter Time Lord had stolen his sonic screwdriver, but at the same time he was glad that Rose was going to be incapacitated, at last.

"I was just saying! Hang on," Jack spoke as he stopped in step, Martha in his arms. "I know this place! Take a right, up ahead, and go deep into the alley! There's a passage in there that will allow us to escape their sights and take us to a safe house of sorts!"

The Torchwood Killer glanced at the man, figuring he wasn't incompetent after all and started to run, making the right at the alley and running all the way down. Jack was on his heels, obviously taxed with carrying the injured woman. As the Torchwood Killer opened the door, he sensed, more strongly now, that something wasn't right. Holding the door, he glanced down the dark alley, towards the street where he could see the military and police wondering where they had gone. Rose wasn't dead after all, but he saw Martha inject her with the alien DNA…Why wasn't she dead?!


	7. Chapter 7

His eyes locked on hers, deadly serious as she spoke. She had a point, this wasn't his world. Things might work differently than one would expect them to on here. But still, the Doctor had been to strange places, met strange people, and was quite strange unto himself. This was the sort of thing he lived for, that he thrived on. Thrusting himself into seemingly impossible situations then figuring out how to solve them. Yes, Rose and Harold were the authorities on this place, but that didn't mean the Doctor couldn't handle things on his own if it absolutely came down to that.

He nodded slowly at her words, reaching into his pocket to feel for the sonic screwdriver, making a slight face and pulling out the banana instead. "Eat this quickly. You don't want potassium deprivation at a time like this," he told her, his other hand soon going to take hers.

He smiled to match her grin, feeling the bond between them that had been shaken due to the events on this world starting to settle down and strengthen again. And then he glimpsed something sadistic behind it. He knew she'd try to kill him, that seemed inevitable. It saddened him she'd become this way, but it was the Torchwood Killer's fault. "Yes, do that but do _**NOT**_ kill him until I say it's alright. He's a terrible man, he's done terrible, unforgivable things, but he needs to be given a choice. I know you want him dead. But believe me, Rose. Murdering your worst enemy will not make you feel better. It'll only rip open a wound that will never, ever heal."

He watched as the sadistic look left her features and that smile, that real smile that was truly her came forward, and he couldn't help but grin widely at her. "Alright. We can do this. We've fought off larger enemies before. This one's tricky, but nothing's ever truly impossible. You alright there Harold?"

Harold nodded, entering the security code and pushing open the door. Stepping out of the soundproof room, he could now hear the sirens outside, voices shouting and yelling, and asking questions. The press was here, wonderful. Luckily, the President knew plenty of ways out of the place that others didn't know of. Reaching for the remote on the secretary's now unoccupied desk, he turned on the telly to see what was going on, on the outside.

A news report stated that a terrorist attack had occurred and that the President was currently being sent to a safe house, and that all the authorities were on the case. There was a recap of recent events involving the Torchwood Killer that had affected the rest of London, the usual drabble behind that. Harold took a deep breath and exhaled, soon turning off the television. Everything was taken care of, good.

"Right then. We're taking a back exit, bit of a tight fit as it's kind of a hidden passageway, but it'll take us down to a private garage. Car should be there. Looks like a clunker but runs fine and the windows are dark."

Oh yes, Harold was prepared for anything and everything.

Moving to what looked like a plain wall, he took out the laser screwdriver, aimed and fired it, cracks in the wall in the shape of a door appearing. It swung open outwards, revealing a dark spiral staircase that was indeed quite narrow and barely lit by emergency lights. "Come on," he said to them, starting to head down, the Doctor still squeezing Rose's hand and starting to move, assuming she'd follow.

Stepping out of the panic room, holding The Doctor's hand, she glanced at the television when Harold had turned it on. She hadn't responded to The Doctor when he had told her not to kill him. But, he didn't know everything; sure he may have seen some of what that murderer had done to her, but he hadn't felt it. Watching them, watching everyone die at his maniacal hands was nearly more than anyone could bear. When he had been in her mind, had he noticed the Torchwood Killer had driven her _mildly_ insane? Probably not, but the truth of the matter is this-

He tricked her, making her believe she was her _real _Doctor. So much had happened between her and the evil Doctor, so much more than she would ever let Harold or The Doctor know. Using her free hand, she rubbed the back of her neck, only then did the realization hit her that she didn't hurt anywhere. It was an odd occurrence of events, but she only shook her head lightly, refocusing her gaze as Harold shut off the television.

Her eyes drifted towards the decimated entrance of the building, unable to see the lights or people through the closed door to his office. Squeezing The Doctor's hand slightly, she could feel the panic of those outside, the questions running through their many minds; some of them had lost loved ones to the Torchwood Killer as well, she could see their pain. As tears welled up in her eyes, she felt herself being pulled away, her eyes moving to see where they were going.

As she made it to the doorway, she saw the barely lit spiral staircase leading down into the darkness and released her grip on The Doctor's hand, knowing they would have to go down single file. Slowly, carefully, she began to follow behind the two Time Lords, making her way down and down-

Meanwhile, back with the other three-

The Torchwood Killer was closing the door after himself, Jack leading the way now, and stopped. Pain, he sensed it. From where he wasn't too sure, but he was positive that it was Rose. She _**WAS**_ alive! Bloody hell! How was it possible? That DNA should have killed her in mere minutes! Anger coursed through his veins, nostrils flaring as he slammed his fist into the nearby wall. She wouldn't last much longer, he'd make 100% sure of that!

Up ahead, Jack stopped, turned and stared at the furious Time Lord. His sense was no where near as good as his, but he definitely knew something was very wrong. "What is it?!" He shouted to the Time Lord.

"It's nothing. I'll deal with it when the time comes. Let's get going, much longer and Martha will die." The Torchwood Killer rebuffed and walked up to Jack, the three then leaving and disappearing into the darkness beyond.

Of a change in Rose and her mentality, the Doctor was aware. He knew terrible things had happened from searching her mind. Not all of it perhaps, but most of it. The tortures she'd faced from this man, the deception and the breaking of her heart and damn near her spirit, it crushed him to think of them. She had known pain and suffering of a most terrible sort, and he was determined to bring this man to justice. The passing on of her feelings of misery and pain, it was a cruel but befitting punishment to the Torchwood Killer, one that would allow him to suffer rather than die. Death was only an escape; a life of misery was much better for this other man. From what he could tell of Harold, he trusted the other man to take care of the Torchwood Killer properly. He realized Harold was in the same situation in this world as he was in the other world, and shared the same feelings. No matter how terrible or torturous the crimes, the Torchwood Killer was all Harold would have left of his kind on this world. He knew Rose wouldn't understand, but it was a risk he had to take. That is, if the Torchwood Killer allowed them to let him live.

Harold stepped down a bit, pausing as the Doctor and Rose filed in behind him, pointing the screwdriver at the door up above their heads and firing at it, the door lighting up then closing behind them, sealing shut. Holding onto the wall, he carefully made his way down the stairs, the smell of dank, enclosed air increasing as they made their way down.

About 50 steps down, spiraling around and around all the way, the steps ended at a door, solid metal of some sort. Another shot from the laser screwdriver and the door swung open, revealing a nearly empty, small garage, in the center an old, beat up looking car sat, the windows indeed tinted. Harold smirked a bit, entering the room and going over to the driver's side door, pulling it open and reaching up under the visor for the key to it. While he might've preferred a nicer looking car, it was the perfect camouflage for the President when he needed to go somewhere without being recognized. Plus, a few other little enhancements had been made to make it less detectable no matter who the occupants?

Starting up the engine, the car sounded just fine, performance wise, despite its looks. "Come on, get in," he called to them. He didn't have the slightest clue where to look, but given that there were two Time Lords _**PLUS**_ the Torchwood Killer's sonic screwdriver, _**plus**_ Rose and her new ability, it couldn't be hard.

The Doctor got into the back seat, intending to sit next to Rose. "Rose, when we get out there, I need you to open your mind and find him. If you feel him, start to pry, if he senses you, and you'll know, believe me, imagine all of your memories behind a locked door," he instructed her.

Harold waited patiently at the wheel, fingers drumming against it. _Tap, tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap._ He could hear the sound of drums, the sound of war. The final battle was about to begin.

Rose made her way down the metal staircase, slightly afraid of it giving out beneath her; it seemed so old and unstable. The dank, stale air was harsh but bearable as they finally made it to the bottom; Rose putting up a hand on the back of The Doctor's shoulder since it was so dark, she didn't want to lose them.

Walking through the garage, she forced her jaw to closed, even though it wanted to drop at the sight of the car. She didn't think anything, worried that they would hear it, but walked towards it anyway, following the men in her life; _the only __**men**__ left_, she reminded herself.

She watched Harold climb in and start it up, The Doctor getting into the back. She faltered briefly outside the car and then slid in behind The Doctor, unsure if Harold was going to be upset or not. Sure, Harold and her had gotten close, but not as close as The Doctor & her had been-no where near. A deep sigh came from her as she settled into the backseat and then turned her head as The Doctor spoke to her, giving a nod in response.

"Alright, I think I can do that." She said with that ever familiar smile. Little did she know just how bad that encounter would be. First, she had no intent on closing all the doors of her mind, she fully intended to make him feel her pain; give him an idea of what it was like for her.

That's when she heard Harold's drumming on the steering wheel. Turning, she faced front, leaned forward and placed a gentle, compassionate hand on his shoulder, a gentle smile to him. "It'll be alright," she whispered to him. She knew about the drumming in his mind, he had told her a long time ago and she also knew what it meant.

Back with the other three-

The Killer, Captain Jack and the unconscious Dr. Jones made it to their destination; his TARDIS; heading inside, they settled down. As Jack tended to Martha, he began to move about the center console. He had taken Rose for a ride within it, when she had thought he was her Doctor; it was here that the truth became known.

Moving about quickly, with a purpose, he began to do a scan for her, finding her and frowning deeply; she **was** alive and this proved it. He'd have to find another way of dealing with that ever frustrating, petite blonde. He refused to be stopped by someone like her, just absolutely refused!

A slight smile crossed the Doctor's lips as he'd felt her hand on his shoulder, the contact slightly comforting. Yes, he was holding up well, but he was still scared. He may have been over 900 years old, may have been through terrible horrors in his life, but the Doctor still got scared. He simply had learned over the years how to handle it in a way that wouldn't hinder his productivity.

The Doctor watched Rose as she paused before getting into the car, feeling a slight twinge of what might have been jealousy. She'd paused, unsure of who to sit with. He supposed he could understand if she didn't trust him yet fully...but it still hurt.

He remained serious as she acknowledged his words, smiling a bit at her smile. "Remember now, this is just to seek him out. The attack comes later when he doesn't expect it," he reminded her. We can't let him know where we are. Though, it might be difficult for him since this car's been so brilliantly fitted with a perception filter, but still," he said, his voice rising up excitedly at the mention of the perception filter before dropping back down again in a more serious tone as he finished speaking. Harold smirked a little at the tone, glad for the acknowledgement of his work that likely no one else but the Doctor and the Torchwood Killer would understand. It was nice to have another of his kind around who wasn't evil.

Harold did feel a little jealous in turn as Rose sat with the Doctor, but let it slide. There were more important things to worry about right now. He glanced back at her as he felt her hand on his shoulder, meeting her eyes for a moment, a faint, forced smile briefly appearing on his face before quickly fading away. Without another word, he hit a button on the dashboard of the car that started to open up the garage door, and began to back up the car once it was all the way up.

Backing out of the garage, he pressed the button to close the door, revealing that it appeared as an old shed in a run down, near deserted little area of old buildings and such. Putting the car into gear, he began to speed off, a very faint sense of the general direction they might've gone in, in mind. Rose would have to fill in the rest of the way.

The Doctor held onto the seat in front of him at Harold's driving, which was a bit...reckless, looking to Rose now that they were out of the garage. "Now, reach out, find him," he softly instructed her, his other hand moving to hers and taking it once more, squeezing it, eyes locked on her. If it got out of control he'd do what he could to help her, but hopefully she could control it. If she couldn't, he'd mind link with her and do what he could to guide her.

She had given a nod to The Doctor as he told her what to do, when searching for the Torchwood Killer, staying silent as Harold backed out of the garage and sped off in the right, general direction the other three had gone.

Hearing The Doctor, feeling him take one of her hands, as he held onto the seat in front of him with his other, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Heart racing, she was nervous; she was new to all of this and now, just learning. A part of her was worried on if she'd be able to do this, but the other part was confident that she could. Wait, was she warring within herself? Oh well, it was a part of being human. Oh God, was she _**even**_ _human_ anymore?

Taking another, sharp, deep breath, she calmed herself, pushing all thoughts out of her mind and focusing on finding him. As she searched, mentally pushing outwards, she saw the two Time Lords and then everyone on the street as they sped by. Her eyelids squeezed tightly together as she began to have some difficulty with all those minds, all those voices within her head. This was going to be harder than she'd imagined; how did they deal with this?

A soft whimper emitted from closed, pursed lips as she fought to find him; the man who had taken her life away. After a few more seconds, her eyes opened, gasping and closing the links. She took a few rapid breaths, eyes meeting with The Doctors worriedly before facing straight and closing her eyes again. She could, _**WOULD**_, do this!

Again, she pushed outwards, shoving through all those minds that came swarming at her, so ferociously and then she saw him, a tiny speck at first and growing bigger. Her mouth opened, "Harold, he's…I'm not sure…He's…" Another whimper came from her, more pronounced than before as she struggled with forcefully closing the doors she didn't want-

The Torchwood Killer decided that he was going to head somewhere, away, so that they could regroup and then come back stronger than ever; the question was, where? Jack continued to tend to Martha, finally retrieving the offending bullet and stopping the bleeding; poor woman would probably need a blood transfusion, which meant they had to take her to a hospital. He abhorred hospitals, but it would be necessity, very soon.

Setting the coordinates, he was about to hit the button and pull the lever when he felt her, Rose. Dark brown eyes shifted through the TARDIS as he felt her mind growing closer, already having him in her senses. So, she wanted to play mind games, did she? A deadly smirk lit up his face as he placed both hands on the center console, closed his eyes and leaned forward.

"_You should really learn what you're doing before messing with people's minds, Miss Tyler."_ he thought out to her knowing, beyond a doubt, she'd get it.

"He's in his TARDIS!" Rose exclaimed as she heard his voice inside of her head, causing her body to shudder slightly. Pushing harder, she refused to yield him, shoving herself upon his mind as he fought her. "He's…about…3 miles north of where we're at! You can't miss…"

"_Oh, no, you don't!"_ The evil Time Lord shouted at her mentally, forcing himself inside of her mind.

Rose gave a mild scream as her head fell backwards, almost as if she'd been punched, which is what it felt like. "You want to play these games. I can play," she said aloud, to the evil Time Lord at the same time. At that moment she opened a couple of doors in her mind, slamming him with her pain and loss, hopefully just enough to disorient him.

The Doctor never took his eyes off of her as she began to search. It could be quite dangerous, given that she'd not used her ability that much, that he was aware of; he didn't know she'd searched Harold's memories briefly. He'd enter her mind the second it started to get really bad, steady her and help her see further. Who knew, with two minds, they'd do even better, most likely.

Harold paid attention to the road, but glanced back to them every so often, waiting for an answer. His phone began to ring, but he ignored it. More important things were happening right now.

The Doctor turned to face her more in her direction, listening in somewhat as best as he could manage without the full link, his face quite serious. It was true that the Doctor, in this incarnation, was usually a playful, enthusiastic, happy (if a bit odd) sort. But when situations got particularly bad, he was able to snap right into his focused, serious stuff; especially when Rose was counted amongst those at risk of getting hurt.

He could feel her pushing out, squeezing her hand tighter. "Concentrate Rose, find him and don't take your eyes off of him, just concentrate," he muttered to her, feeling something faltering. Damn it. Another time, when this was all over, he'd show her the proper ways to focus. It was an amazing ability, but like all abilities, needed to be perfected.

At the shout of "Three miles North," Harold stepped on it and began to speed in that direction, resetting the odometer to measure the miles, though he suspected as they drew near he wouldn't need the device to know how close he was. His concern grew, as they drove, as Rose screamed and struggled with whatever she was seeing, but he knew he had to focus on the road.

The Doctor immediately let go of her hand and reached forward as she screamed, taking a hold of her head and entering her mind to see what was going on and to steady it. At that moment that he locked on, however, she had opened her mind up, the memories and emotions hitting him at the same time that it hopefully hit the Torchwood Killer.

"Not now, Rose, not now," he muttered to her, gritting his teeth, the emotions were indeed quite intense, making it a wee bit difficult to hold on for the pain of it. It was an offense he needed the Torchwood Killer to not see coming, so that it could be used when he was least expecting it, gaining them an advantage of short. At least by what he could feel of it, if this wasn't all of what she had in her, the Torchwood Killer would definitely be hit hard.


	8. Chapter 8

Unaware that The Doctor had entered her mind at her scream, she had thrown her emotions and pain at the evil Time Lord, in hopes of disorienting him. He'd feel the full force later on, but right now she needed to take advantage of the situation, as she had realized that he was planning on swanning off somewhere and she would be damned if she was going to let him get away.

The evil Time Lord was hit by the brunt of Rose's mind and memories, giving a shout he fell away from the center console, onto the grated floor beneath him, eyes squeezed shut. _My, what a powerful young lady._ Jack looked up from tending to Martha, only just beginning to stitch her up; he couldn't take the time to go and see if he was alright.

"Damn right, I'm…" Rose's words cut off in mid-sentence as she noticed then that The Doctor's mind was linked with hers. That's when worry began to set in. If the evil Time Lord threw something at her, The Doctor would see and feel too! She started to pull away from the evil ones mind, meaning to return back to her own and to the car they were in. But she wasn't quite quick enough.

The Torchwood Killer felt her pulling away, feeling another presence within her mind and smirked, laying there on the floor. Sure, he may be a bit disoriented, but that was all. Seeing those two linked gave him an advantage. Opening his mind, he shoved the memories of Rose & him back at her; the memories of them, together-in bed.

Rose was nearly out of the evil Time Lord's mind when his memory slammed into her, causing her to gasp in shock. She tried to get away from it, to block it; she didn't want The Doctor to see that-that when she had thought the Torchwood Killer was him that they had, eventually, slept together. Too late-

The memory flooded through her mind, Rose struggling both in her mind and physically to get away; she couldn't. As everything swarmed through, she continued to gasp and cry out, not wanting to remember those.

"_No! You tricked me into thinking you were him! Stop! Stop it!!" _She cried out mentally at him, trying to sever the connection and finally succeeding. Her eyes flew open and she noticed The Doctor's hands on her head. Throwing up her hands, she knocked them away and scooted to the window farthest from him, eyes downcast towards the floorboards, voice stammering. "Doctor, I…I'm so sorry…"

He held as tightly as he could, not forcing the doors shut himself as he didn't want to harm her, merely pleading with her to stop and try to make what suggestions he could to focus her mind. He could feel the Torchwood Killer in there, the anger and malice behind it, gasping as more of her powerful memories struck him. And then, one surfaced, one that hit the Doctor harder than all the others.

Rose and the imposter in bed together. A moment he'd wanted to share with her so badly, and he'd gotten to have it. This...imposter, who'd ruined her life, had also taken from her that moment. The Doctor wasn't what you would call sexually active; he'd had family, children and grandchildren, but that had been a long, long, long time ago. Therefore, such a moment wouldn't be treated lightly, not at all.

The Doctor paled, rage and sorrow threatening to consume him. Harold glanced back through the mirror, eyes wide, sensing easily the emotions emanating from the back seat. Something was up. Some sort of psychic attack from the Torchwood Killer...or The Doctor had seen something he didn't like. Or both. "What's going on? Doctor? Rose? What is it?"

The Doctor didn't answer, bringing his hand to his eyes and rubbing slowly. He couldn't be angry at Rose. She had thought it was him, not the Torchwood Killer. She had been deceived. Still...oh, of all things, of all the things the evil Time Lord had done, why was this hitting him and upsetting him the hardest?

He gritted his teeth, taking a deep breath and exhaling a few times, gulping and closing his eyes, calming himself. The rage would get him no where, he needed to have a clear mind.

"Anger...fear...aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will," he mumbled, actually only half-aware he was quoting Yoda. "He'll use pain...he'll use our pain and our rage against us. We mustn't let him. It...you didn't know Rose. You didn't know," he mumbled, eyes going down to the floor, still obviously quite upset despite his own words. "Harold, we there yet?"

Harold was somewhat confused as to what it had been, but took it all in stride, concerned for them, especially for Rose, but knowing what he had to do. "Almost. Another minute and we're there," he said, speeding up the car a bit more.

A couple of minutes later, the area where the TARDIS was, was in front of them. Harold parked the car, staring at the TARDIS, "guess we're rushing in then, eh?" he sighed, the Doctor looking up at him then to the TARDIS.

"Yeah. No...we lure them out first," he said, getting out of the car, leaving Rose there, standing in front of it. "**THIS ENDS NOW!**" he shouted, all the rage from before showing quite strongly in his voice. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out both sonic screwdrivers, his own in his left hand, the Torchwood Killer's in his right. He locked his eyes on the TARDIS, hearts pounding as he waited for the evil Time Lord to show.

It all came down to this moment and what transpired within.

Rose didn't answer Harold either, instead placing her hands tightly together in her lap, still staring at the floorboards of the moving vehicle. She was embarrassed, pissed but worse off? Ashamed. She continued staring at the floor, even when The Doctor tried, vainly, to console her. Normally she would have laughed at him quoting Yoda, but she was way too side-tracked, lost in her thoughts. She had caught a glimpse of his feelings over it all, before the link had been severed and it didn't help matters none at all. She had known him long enough to know what he had seen bothered him, on a great level.

A few minutes later they showed up to the location where the evil Time Lord's TARDIS was parked. When The Doctor got out, she looked up at Harold, a few tears having slipped down her face. A deep breath and she wiped the moistness away with her sleeve and got out the door she was beside, the car now separating her and the Doctor.

She flinched at The Doctor's shout; the rage was thoroughly worrisome for her. She wanted to walk up to him, try to console him, but she knew there was nothing she could do. He had seen something that she had hoped would stay hidden away within her, till she finally died; she had been so wrong.

Hazel eyes stared up at the TARDIS as both doors swung open, the evil Time Lord standing there, a broad grin on his face. "Did you like what you saw, Doctor?" The Torchwood Killer stepped out a step and stopped as he saw the three of them his eyes finally settling on the upset blonde.

"You should have been there. It was brilliantly fantastic. That's one little sex kitten there." His smirk turned into a broad grin as Rose turned her face away, staring at the paved ground below. "Oh, are you embarrassed to admit that you liked it, Rose? Come now, it's not a shame to admit it. Confess…"

His words were cut off by Rose as she jerked her head upright, walked to the front of the car and spat out words at him, "I won't confess to anything! You are a lying, deceiving bastard! And I hope you rot in your grave!!"

Jack stepped up to the open doors, at hearing Rose's pissed off voice, staring at the entourage of empowered people. He knew right then, things weren't going too well-for them. Moving away, he slipped back inside and to Martha, who was in a deep sleep on the floor now.

Harold frowned at Rose's tears, wondering for a moment if he'd ever find out just what had happened before pushing it aside and getting out. He looked to the Doctor and then Rose, then to the Torchwood Killer. Seeing Jack peeking out and ducking back in worried him. He could sense fear, but something else could still be getting planned. Hopefully the Doctor could take on the evil Time Lord, if Harold had to go after Jack again. They had the better odds with the girl Martha down...if all went as they needed it to, they could win this. Though, he supposed they all had their idea of what counted as winning.

The Doctor didn't let his eyes leave the evil Time Lord. It was certainly bizarre, to be staring at an exact image of yourself and to feel such vile hatred for them. Still, despite it all, he would give a choice.

"You are vile and a disgrace to the Time Lords and Gallifrey. You will pay for your crimes, every single one. I'm going to give you a choice. Stand down and let the President take you, where you'll be held prisoner but will not be exposed to other punishments. If you don't stand down, you're going to feel every ounce of pain you've caused. I'm done with killing, I've done enough in my time, but as you know there are fates worse than death. If you do not stand down, you will feel every single one of those punishments. This is the end, your time is over."

The Doctor spoke loudly and clearly, his voice firm, loud and angry, the prior rage heard in it still there, just bubbling under the surface, but controlled. It was diplomatic delivery, and would also show the Torchwood Killer that, try as he might to get the Doctor to snap and lose it and ultimately mess up, he would not. The Doctor had been on the front lines before, had fought many, many battles of physical and psychic natures, and was not an easy man to take down.

He tightened his grip around each sonic screwdriver, waiting for the Killer's response, already planning for each possible reply. He doubted there would be a surrender, not right away at least. When he answered, he would be attacked, preferably by Rose's mind. She wouldn't need his help, she knew how to project her pain and well, he had seen that. He'd use her to take the Torchwood Killer down, send him to his knees, and ask once more. Whether he said yes or no, the Torchwood Killer would be taken prisoner, and Harold could do as he willed.

That was, if Rose didn't kill the man first.

"Rose, no!" Harold shouted as she had moved towards the front of the car, afraid that she was going to lunge at the evil Time Lord, but he gave an exasperated sigh as she stopped, shouting at him. So, this is what it came down to, huh? That's what had been so bad that she freaked out in the car over.

Rose felt the fury welling up inside of her, wanting so badly to unleash it upon him. She wanted to beat his face in, beat him down, kick him and hurt him just like he had done to her. She wanted the evil Time Lord dead, even as The Doctor shouted at him. That grin on the evil ones face made her want to grab him by the hair and slam his face into the pavement over-and over; it was radiating off of her in waves, everyone could feel it, psychic abilities or not.

The evil Time Lord continued to grin, throughout Rose's screaming and The Doctor's threats, knowing Jack was up to something inside of the TARDIS. He had a plan for this exact thing; though Rose had incapacitated him briefly, he had been able to learn, from her, what was going to transpire here, or some of it at least-enough of it to make some plans in the few minutes they had left before they had arrived.

"Did you really think I wouldn't have a plan, Doctor?" he said, smirking sadistically. "You know nothing of the Gallifrey of this world, but Harold, or should I say The Master, does. He was the odd one out, Doctor, the peacemaker. Oh, I know about the Gallifrey in your world; peacemakers. Here they were War Lords-a race feared by all others in the Galaxy. I'm not a disgrace; I'm the last of them. This _Master_ was the disgrace."

Rose turned her head towards Harold, surprised by this fact, watching for the confirmation. She didn't need it though, for she already knew that the evil Time Lord was telling the truth, she sensed it. Her eyes drifted to The Doctor, knowing now that The Doctor's plan may not work. That's when the TARDIS began to hum to life, causing her to jerk back in its direction. He was going to leave! Or so she thought.

"You're not getting away!!" She shouted as the evil Time Lord stepped backwards towards the open doors of the TARDIS. She wasn't far from the TARDIS; she was the closest one, standing at the head of the car. Biting her lip, she gave an apologetic look to The Doctor-

Inside the TARDIS, Jack left Martha to sleep and began to work the controls of the TARDIS, hearing and seeing, as much as feeling, it hum to life. He wasn't quite sure how this was going to work, after all his _boss_ only gave him a short description-something about not wanting Rose to find out what he was up to. He set the coordinates the evil Time Lord had told him too, knowing it was going to put them right behind the car that those three were standing by. Not understanding why, he did it anyway and waited for the signal to make it fly.

Harold looked again to Rose, feeling that hatred and hostility radiating from her. He'd felt the pain and rage she'd suffered before, but this was the strongest it had ever been. He'd watch her, make sure she didn't make any moves that might make a mess of things; right about now, she sure as hell seemed like she might.

He gritted his teeth as the Torchwood Killer spoke of Gallifrey, it's true state. He'd held back a lot of information from Rose, about the Gallifrey of this world. Since it was gone it hadn't seemed necessary. Even though the Time Lords had been evil, Harold still felt awful for destroying the planet. They were still his people, whether they'd rejected him or not. He'd tried to change them, but they wouldn't have it.

Feeling Rose's eyes on him, he glanced briefly to her then looked away, feeling her prying for the truth, answering her yes. He'd seen so much potential for the Time Lords. They could've been great, done good things for the universe, but no. He'd been exiled for it, living a renegade life until the great war, ending it all to not just end the war but to save the universe from his own people. He supposed the irony of it was that his action would have been condoned in a way by his people, the ultimate act of destruction, the murder of two entire races. Protecting the Earth, you might say, was his way of trying to make up for it. Destroy two planets, protect a third to atone for your sins.

The Doctor frowned at the description of this world's Gallifrey, and this world's Time Lords. So it wasn't just two personalities being opposite in this realm, but a whole planet? A whole race?

The familiar hum of the TARDIS starting up distracted him from his thoughts, eyes widening. He was without his own TARDIS, and Harold had made no mention of having one of his own. If the Torchwood Killer left, they were done. Trapped on this Earth until a way back was found-if it was found.

He started to move forward when Rose gave him that look. "No," he told her, moving up to try to grab her arm. He wouldn't allow the sadist to take her prisoner again, and while he knew Rose had quite strong abilities, he had no doubt the Torchwood Killer would figure out a way to block her mind, now that he knew what she could do.

"Now!!" The evil Time Lord shouted as he saw the distraction working. Jack responded in kind by slapping the buttons and pulling the lever. The evil Time Lord nodded his head to the side with a cheeky grin. "Ta-ta!"

"Noooo!!!" Rose shouted as she turned her attention back towards the Torchwood Killer, no longer caring about anything but getting him. Her feet flew only a few steps and then she felt herself grabbed, her body falling back from the firm grip and into The Doctor himself. She tried to regain her balance when she fell into him, hoping that he would regain his so that they both wouldn't hit the pavement. Futile attempts. She felt herself falling and then the jolt saying that they had hit the ground.

The Torchwood Killer laughed and jumped backwards, the TARDIS starting to dematerialize and soon, a few short seconds later, it was gone, vanishing into Time & Space.

Her head bounced off of The Doctor's shoulder when they hit the pavement. Shaking her head, she lifted it up, blonde hair falling and covering their faces like a veil from Harold, as she looked down at the man who had grabbed her. There was a brief pause, almost as if everything had stopped, the area unusually quiet now that the TARDIS had gone. Her eyes met his, a brief moment of embarrassment for the way they had landed and then that innocence was gone as Rose's eyes flared with anger.

"What did you go and do that for?!" She shouted as she pushed off of him. The anger wasn't directed towards him, not exactly; she was pissed because she could have stopped that evil Time Lord, or thought she could anyway-she was also trying to cover up that brief interlude when she had first met his eyes, repressing the urge she had felt in that second and covering it with anger instead.

Rising to her feet, she brushed herself off and glared at him, feeling Harold's eyes on her back as he walked up behind her. "I would have had him, Doctor! You had no right to grab me!!"

Back in the TARDIS the evil Time Lord almost danced up to the controls, circled it like a vulture and then perched next to Jack, grinning that sadistic grin. "Went just as planned. The good Doctor worries about her safety, and that's exactly what I had hoped for."

The Doctor's eyes went wide as Rose leapt forward while the Torchwood Killer began to make his getaway. He pulled her back as hard as he could once his hand was around her wrist. He could see so clearly how that could've been very, very bad. Rose could've easily been snatched into the TARDIS, and she'd be gone. That'd be that. Battle lost, Rose taken, tortured and killed. He couldn't have that.

He grunted as they hit the ground, his own head hitting the hard ground, stunning him for a moment but not knocking him out. He blinked several times, staring up at her as she began to shout at him and got up. Sitting up once she was off, he reached behind his head and touched the back of it. No blood, that was good. Pressing both hands to his temples, he closed his eyes tightly for a moment then reopened them, readjusting from the dizziness before turning to face the enraged Rose.

"Because I'm not losing you again," he said firmly, looking right down into her eyes. "What do you think would've happened if you had leapt at him? You would've been snatched and taken with him. Then you'd be dead. I will not allow that to happen."

He looked up to Harold, who honestly looked like he didn't know what to do with himself. The Master was beginning to doubt this story had an end. The Torchwood Killer was gone now, and the Master, well, his TARDIS had been destroyed years ago. He still had the parts, but they were no good. No matter what he did to try to fix it, it was dead.

Harold stepped forward to the spot where the TARDIS had been, feeling the bare remnants of the energy there. "Maybe they had it right after all. Pacifism gets you nowhere," he muttered, just barely loud enough for the others to hear. "I should've taken him out long ago," he said softly, grinding his teeth, the drums in his head getting just a bit louder.

The Doctor listened to Harold's words, but didn't answer. He had no answers. The only thing they could do now was wait, if the Torchwood Killer even bothered coming back to this time. Or find some way to track them and travel after them.

Pulling away from Rose, the Doctor began to pace, shoving both screwdrivers in his pockets while moving both hands back through his hair. "Think. Think. Think. There's got to be another way to get to them. There has to be."

"There isn't...I've tried, believe me," Harold said to him, still standing where the TARDIS had been, staring back at them.

"And you just gave up, is that it?" the Doctor said, outraged. "You. You know how the vortex in this world works. You had to get here, to this planet and this time somehow. How?"

"I had a TARDIS but it was destroyed when I landed. I've tried fixing it, it's no good."

"Obviously you didn't try hard enough," the Doctor snapped at him, looking back to Rose for a moment then to Harold. "Where is it? You kept it, didn't you? Where is it? We're going to fix it and we're going to go after them."

"It's at Torchwood. Locked up. I'm the only one with the pass code." Harold said, skeptical of it getting fixed but figuring he had no other choice.

"Right then. We're going to Torchwood. Rose, get in the car. This isn't over yet!" Despite his obvious anger and frustration, the Doctor's old enthusiasm was at least starting to show through quite a bit. The Doctor did not give up, no matter how dire the circumstances.


	9. Chapter 9

After she finished bitching she took in a sharp huff of air, her cheeks puffing out and then exhaled it slowly as The Doctor aimed his firm words at her. Blinking she took a step back, looking as if she had just been slapped across the face; that's what it had felt like, in a sense. His words, his worry over her, not wanting to lose her again, it was like a sharp slap and it brought the humility back to her, her eyes going downcast to the ground.

She only looked up when Harold moved to where the TARDIS had been, eyes darting between the two of them, watching silently as she slowly walked towards the back of the car. As she got to the trunk of the car, she looked out at the town beyond, yearning for some semblance of a normal life. Those two were busy trying to figure things out, leaving her out of the loop. A faint smile crossed her face as she remembered how The Doctor had been those long years ago; God that seemed like another lifetime now.

A breeze picked up, as she walked a few steps away from the trunk, in the direction they had taken to get to the location they were at. Blonde hair blew softly around her face as she heard The Doctor tell her to get into the car-

In the TARDIS the evil Time Lord went to work putting his plan into motion, telling Jack as he went along, no longer caring to keep it secret, as by the time those goody-goodies figured it out it would already be too late.

"Check the monitor, see where Rose is positioned right now." He ordered Jack.

"She's about a foot, maybe two, from the rear of the car," he replied swiftly after looking at the monitor.

"Good." He smirked as he began to work his magic. "See, Jackie-boy, we're going to materialize right on top of her, bring her into the TARDIS. The good ole Doctor worries about her, let's give him something to _REALLY_ worry about."

The Torchwood Killer looked up at Jack as he saw the dark-haired man's unsure eyes. "Materialize us," he paused for a few seconds, a foot on one of the controls, his eyes on the blonde standing there, "NOW!" Both Jack and him slammed their hands down on different things, the TARDIS beginning to materialize. "Make this disappear as soon as we have her inside fully!"

Rose turned to face The Doctor now, about a foot or two away from the trunk of the car. She didn't want to go to Torchwood, be reminded that she was the last surviving member, but nodded anyway, going to obey him. He had never led her astray before, now wouldn't be any different.

She had only taken a half a step as the gentle breeze picked up suddenly, causing her to spin around, wondering why and then she heard it; the hum of the TARDIS, but where…Her hair began to whip around her face and she raised up one hand to try to shield her eyes as she searched and then she saw it, the inside of his TARDIS slowly coming into focus.

Dropping her hand, she spun around and stared at The Doctor's fading face, not looking at Harold. "DOCTOR!!!!" Her voice faded away as the TARDIS materialized fully around her and then began to fade away almost immediately, once he had her.

Rose turned back around, her eyes surveying her surroundings, seeing Martha on the floor, seemingly unconscious, Jack and that evil Time Lord at the center console. She didn't dare move as she met gazes with the man who had tricked her, her heart racing, breathing rapid-she was afraid for once.

As the Doctor finished telling Rose to get in the car, he heard the sound of the TARDIS. Eyes widening, he saw it materialize over Rose, quickly disappearing, her screams leftover in the air. "NO! ROSE!" he screamed, running towards where she'd been, turning to the car and slamming his fist on the back of it, fists clenched tightly, muscles quivering. No. This couldn't happen. He couldn't lose her again.

But there she was, there then gone. Who knew what the Torchwood Killer was doing to her now. What he would do. The thoughts infuriated the Doctor and filled him with the worst sorrow. A tear formed at his eye, but he pushed it away, moving towards the car and yanking open the passenger side door to the front seat. "We need to get to Torchwood. We need to fix your TARDIS or find something there to get us after them. MOVE!"

Harold's mind was reeling. The drums were now louder than ever, the memories of the last war flashing back. He was quickly coming to terms with a few facts, the greatest of them being that it was simple, the solution to this. Destruction. Nothing ended without bloodshed. Happiness and peace, or at least peace, couldn't be achieved without loss. The Time Lords had been a vicious people, he the only one willing to do good. Now only one of the vicious ones was left: the Torchwood Killer. Whichever one of them survived would be the legacy of their culture. Death, or new beginnings?

_Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump._

He stared forward, hands over his ears, eyes closed. As the TARDIS had appeared and reappeared, he opened his eyes at the sound of her screams and then the Doctor's, staring in shock. It had happened so fast...she was there, then she wasn't.

Looking to the Doctor as the other Time Lord yelled at him to move, he stared at him for a long moment, prompting the Doctor to look even more angry and frantic. "Come on! What's wrong with you, we need to move NOW!" the Doctor snapped at him, patience wearing thin. Harold was acting strange, and that was worrying him. Especially given just who he was this world's version of.

Harold immediately rushed to the car, the sound barely fading in his mind, taking out his keys and starting up the engine. The Doctor got in the passenger side, and they took off. Harold's phone started to ring, and so he snatched it up quickly said, "I'm fine and I'm busy, let me alone," then hung up. He knew there would likely be problems in the future, given that the rest of the government might believe he was missing, but that was another problem for another time.

He didn't know how far off she was, but the Doctor figured it'd be worth a shot to try to reach Rose via her mind. Closing his eyes, he focused, reaching out for her, calling her name out within his mind. If she could hear him...something of a plan could be worked out, their location pinpointed. He needed to either catch up with the Torchwood Killer, or bring him to them.

Inside the TARDIS she stared for a long moment at the Torchwood Killer, backing up as he advanced on her, stopping only a foot away, right within arm's length. She tried not to show her fear as she faced him, head high, eyes shining brightly with hatred. He brought his face down, close to hers and smirked. "Want to give me a kiss?"

Her eyes darkened as a quick hand shot up from her side and slapped him hard across the face, Jack wincing at the loud sound that reverberated throughout the moving TARDIS. "Get the Hell away from me, you monster," she spat at him, voice laced with disdain.

His head jerked to the side from the force of the blow and then he slowly turned back to face her, his hands flying from his sides, grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her against the hard interior wall; keeping the urge to laugh hidden as she winced in pain. "You don't want to me make mad, little girl! Got it? I'm the dark side of the man you know, the man you love! Bad side and me, don't mix!!"

Spittle flew from his mouth, dangling over his lower lip as his face was, quite literally, right in front of hers, practically nose to nose. Rose breathed heavily through her nose, eyes glaring into his as she leaned her face close to his, making their noses touch. "I. Am. Not. Afraid. Of. You." Her voice was low, threatening. "They will come for me. They will find me. You have just made a bitter enemy. He won't stop now, do you understand?"

The Torchwood Killer pulled his head back, hearing her words, but not phased in the slightest, instead grabbing that head of blonde hair and dragging her up towards the console. "You have the coordinates, right Jack?"

Rose screamed as she was dragged forward by her hair, hands trying to grab for his, eventually scratching him instead. When he stopped at the console, she glanced at it through her long blonde hair, realizing that it was exactly the same as her Doctor's. Hope jumped up into her heart at that moment. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to sabotage it-

"We need to drop the luggage," the evil Time Lord said as he nodded towards the unconscious Martha. "Go to London, Royal Hope Hospital and drop her on their doorstep, Jack. We can't have her dragging us down."

"But…"

"My plans don't include her anymore! She needs medical attention, so do as I say!!!" His voice raised, causing Rose to flinch and then Jack set the coordinates for the hospital, London.

At that moment, Rose thought she felt The Doctor trying to make contact with her. Hanging on to the evil Time Lord's hand, she closed her eyes and focused on The Doctor. _"Doctor, hurry. They're touching down in London. I…I don't know what he's planning, but they're going to leave Martha at Royal Hope Hospital and…"_

The evil Time Lord, realizing she had made contact with his new enemy, yanked her head up, causing her eyes to fly open and stare up at him, wide eyed. "Put up the telepathy field, _**NOW**_!"

Jack complied and flipped the switch, causing a barrier to go up around the TARDIS, keeping any, and all, telepathic contact from coming in or going out. He just cut Rose's conversation off in midsentence and then he looked at her, a frown upon his evil features.

The Doctor waited and listened, sitting up straight as he heard her voice. "They're going to Royal Hope hospital in London. We need to hurry," he said to Harold, who frowned at him.

"That's like, three hours away! We'll never make it by the time they leave."

"Damn it," he muttered, both at the time frame and as Rose's voice was suddenly silenced. "Alright. Hurry, we have to get your TARDIS fixed. It's the only way we're going to win this."

Harold nodded and continued on to Torchwood, pulling up in front and hopping out of the car, the Doctor following behind him. "No one will be here, they're all dead," Harold explained, taking out a key as they arrived at the front door, unlocking it and hurrying the Doctor inside, locking the door behind them.

They went downstairs to the basement, beyond the storage areas for any other alien artifacts, to a corridor with no doors. Taking his laser screwdriver out, Harold moved down the hall, Doctor right at his heels, stopping as they reached a spot on the wall with a hand-print scanner. He pressed his hand to it, waiting as below it, four lines in the shape of a thin rectangle appeared and a keypad slid out. Entering a long code, Harold stepped back, the keypad sliding back in as the wall made a whirring noise, then slid open, revealing a short little corridor leading into a bigger room.

The two Time Lords went inside, which contained nothing but a tall, thin metal box. It was about 7 feet tall, 2x2 feet wide, and made of a copper coloured substance. On the panel facing towards the door was the outline of a door, with no obvious handles or means of opening said door. Taking out the laser screwdriver, Harold aimed and fired, the door swinging open towards them, the inside showing a large interior, similar to the Doctor's own TARDIS.

Entering the TARDIS, it looked a wreck. "I've tried everything, and yet nothing ever seems to work. It's like no energy source is strong enough. Not even the Cardiff rift," Harold explained, going over to the console and pressing a few buttons, getting no reply.

"Hmm," was the Doctor's only reply as he pulled up the grate on the floor and climbed down into the wiring, beginning to fool around with things.

Harold walked over to the opening and watched as the Doctor adjusted some wires, switching them around and such, checking a few little bulbs here and there, the flash of the sonic screwdriver going off as he fixed things up. "The Vortex is vulnerable right now. The one of this world and my world are likely still open, still blending together. That's what that storm had to be. It needs to be closed soon, as it's going to damage both worlds quite badly if it goes on for too much longer. So my guess is, that while your TARDIS is dead on its own energy, what if...what if it were to work on the combined energies? It might be a temporary fix, but it just might work enough to get it on its feet. So to speak." He hopped back out, nearly knocking over Harold, replacing the grate and going over to the console, looking up at the other Time Lord. "We're going to power it with our own energies. It'll remove a few years from your life, but it's not like they're too limited anyway. And it's worth it."

Facing the heart of the TARDIS, he summoned up just enough energy that would hopefully work when combined with Harold's, and sent it into the heart. Harold did the same, and after a moment, something began to glow. The dead heart began to come to life, its connection with the Time Vortex reawakening. Grinning widely, the Doctor let out a laugh of joy as the rest of the TARDIS came to life, Harold staring in awe, a real grin actually crossing his features.

"To London?

"To London."

Moving around the console, Harold took over, setting the destination for London in the vicinity of the hospital, set at the current time and date. The TARDIS started to make a similar sound to the Doctor's, then dematerialized from the room, materializing a moment later right by the front entrance of the hospital, taking the shape of a telephone booth. A regular red one, that was.

"Right," the Doctor said, peeking outside. "We wait, and we either nab them or we follow them. I don't know why they'd come here in the first place though. Something's not right."

"What do you plan on doing with me?" Rose asked the evil Time Lord, already knowing the answer, but trying to delay for time.

The TARDIS came to a stop inside of Royal Hope Hospital, in the main atrium, causing a commotion inside, the people screaming and running to the outside of the building. The man, still holding Rose by the hair, looked to Jack. "Grab Miss Jones and set her outside the TARDIS. Also, give me your gun," he looked down at Rose, his voice darkening, "for assurance."

Jack did exactly as he was told, gave him his gun and then picked up Martha. Together they all filed out of the TARDIS, Rose watched as people ran away. No one was even trying to help her, which didn't surprise her but it did _almost_ make her feel ashamed about her species.

Walking up to a gurney, Jack laid Martha down and then went back to the Time Lord's side. Rose frantically began trying to think of a distraction she could cause-something, **anything**! She had hoped The Doctor had gotten the bit about Royal Hope Hospital and would make it in time. Nothing came to her mind for a distraction and she was being dragged back to the TARDIS as a doctor rushed up to Martha's prone form.

She had to think of something! And then she saw it-no, she had to have been seeing things, but she could have sworn that red phone booth hadn't been there before. She blinked once, twice and was still unable to figure out if it had been there before, or not, and then the Time Lord stopped in his tracks.

"Inside! They're here!" He shouted, shoving Rose inside the TARDIS, Jack following, as he aimed the gun at the glass doors and windows and opened fire, splaying a stream of bullets causing all the glass to shatter.

Being shoved inside, she lost her balance but caught it quickly and spun, making a run for the doors to escape, regardless on him being out there or not. She had just made it outside as Jack's arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her up from the ground, making her scream and beat at him.

"No!! Let me go!! _**DOCTOR**_!!!!" She screamed as Jack dragged her back inside, into the confines of the telepathic field prison.

The evil Time Lord's gun finally ran out of bullets and he threw it to the floor. "You'll have to do better than this, Doctor!!!" He shouted and then ran inside, slamming the doors, locking them and running to the center console. Quickly he began to input new coordinates, fully intending on going into the far past.

Growing a bit impatient, the Doctor a moment later wandered out of the telephone box, telling Harold to stay there, as he would most definitely get them recognized, seeing as he was the President and with the explosion at his office likely all over the news, it would just be not good. Being sneaky, he moved inside the atrium, hiding behind a column and a newsstand just as the Torchwood Killer's TARDIS appeared, causing the commotion. Staying hidden, he pulled out the two sonic screwdrivers, watching as Jack put Martha on the gurney, spotting Rose and sending her a quick telepathic. _I'm here._

He waited, wanting the perfect moment to make his move. He had to get aboard the Torchwood Killer's TARDIS. It was the only way. With the psychic barrier up, there was absolutely no way he'd be able to track them; unless things went wonky again and worked in their favour, but the Doctor wasn't pressing his luck.

Gritting his teeth, he started to move out of his hiding spot once he heard the shout from the evil Time Lord, pausing as the bullets shattered the window, listening for the gun to run out, then ran from his hiding place, just missing them as the doors slammed shut.

Holding the evil Time Lord's sonic screwdriver, he fired at the door of the TARDIS. Even though this might normally work with his TARDIS, it was questionable if it would there, since while there were similarities in genetic makeup most likely, he was not the Torchwood Killer.

"Come on, come on," he urged at the screwdriver, the doors lighting up some, and then...a faint click. Pushing the door open, he stepped inside the TARDIS, a triumphant grin upon his face, quickly turning dark and angry once he laid his eyes upon the evil Time Lord and Rose.

"This may not be my world, but things are certainly working out better than I planned," he said, the Torchwood Killer's screwdriver aimed right at the evil Time Lord. "And now, it's over."

He fired at the console at several spots, hoping to destroy it or at least damage it long enough to keep them there. He couldn't allow them to leave; else things were going to get a lot trickier.

Harold in the meantime heard the blast of gunfire, peeking out the door of the TARDIS. Sod it, he was going in. Enough attention had been drawn by now for sure, there was no need to hide. Waiting for the gunfire to clear, he moved towards the entrance, stepping through one of the shattered windows to go inside, seeing the Doctor as he busted open the doors of the TARDIS with his screwdriver and went inside. Taking a deep breath, hoping he wasn't stepping into a death trap, he followed the other inside as the Doctor shot at the console, quickly raising his laser screwdriver towards Jack in case the immortal made a move. Even if he couldn't kill him, Harold and likely Jack knew damn well by now that Harold could do some damage, enough to stop him temporarily.

She never heard The Doctor's telepathic message as she had been too close to the TARDIS, and the telepathic barrier, to receive it.

Inside the TARDIS, Jack still had a firm grip around Rose's waist, not releasing the fiery young woman even as the evil Time Lord began to input new coordinates. "Let me go!!" Rose shouted at the men. He was out there, he was here to rescue her and she was unable to do anything!

Once he was done inputting the coordinates, the evil Time Lord lifted his head and gazed at the disheveled blonde, eyes burning with fire as his hand rested upon the control that would send the TARDIS into motion. His slight hesitance cost him though, because at that moment the TARDIS doors flew open and the good ole Doctor came barging on it.

Rose watched as The Doctor stormed in and fired at the center console, her head turning away quickly as sparks and small explosions erupted from it, the evil Time Lord jumping away in time, but glaring at his good imposter.

Nothing was said for a beat as it seemed the stand off would last forever and she noticed Harold standing there, as the smoke from the explosions ebbed, his laser screwdriver pointed at-her, well Jack the man holding her.

As her eyes drifted between her two friends, a smile formed on her face, for she knew she was saved and then it faded. Trying to get away from Jack, she started to struggle again, but it was useless as he had her in his ever tightening grip.

"Doctor, Doctor, Doctor…Did you really think that you would win so easily?" The evil Time Lord spoke. "You may have the power of the Time Lords, but we still have your woman."

As he spoke, he slowly walked towards Jack, who still had a firm grip on Rose, causing Rose to stop struggling and stare at his advancement. She tried to reach out with her mind, to try to bring him to his knees, but found the barrier was still up in place, a frown appearing on her face.

"Mister President, I'd watch where you aim that thing, you might hit your dear old friend." The evil Time Lord spoke again.

And then Rose had an idea, her eyes locking with The Doctor and Harold's eyes. Even with the barrier still up, she hoped they would understand. If The Doctor and Harold shot at the men at the same time, then Rose would be able to run to their sides. It would give them the upper hand once more.

"Harold! Do it!" She shouted as she leaned forward in Jack's grip, which caused him to pick the small blonde up off of the floor, leaving her feet dangling. "Shoot him! Do it!! Don't worry about me, just do it!!!"


	10. Chapter 10

Tension snaked its way through the Doctor's muscles, eyes straight ahead, mind set and focused on the Torchwood Killer, at the same time brewing ideas on how to finally end all of this. This TARDIS seemed exactly like his, meaning that figuring out the best way to damage it enough, to require intense repair, would be easy. He'd keep going for the console, and the power cells below the platform. He didn't want to fully destroy it, in case Harold's TARDIS happened to fail them later on, as a TARDIS might be necessary to get back to his universe.

He attempted to send a mental message to Harold, finding it impossible since the shield was up. This put them at a disadvantage, but not a total one.

"Well, as a matter of fact I do believe I'm going to win, though not necessarily easily. Easy is boring, I like a challenge." He glanced at Rose for a moment, giving her a little smile then looked back to the Torchwood Killer. He could feel Harold beside him, arm just barely brushing the others, glad to have another Time Lord at his back. In that, they certainly had the upper hand.

The Doctor watched the Torchwood Killer moving to Jack and Rose, catching the look on Rose's face, gently nudging Harold in as subtle a way as possible to make sure he caught it as well. Indeed, the President had, and was readying his attack for the right moment. Who needed telepathy when you had instinct?

Slowly, the Doctor moved the sonic screwdriver towards the Torchwood Killer. "I am sorry, I'm so, so sorry," he said to him, his face suddenly becoming grim as simultaneously, he and Harold fired their screwdrivers, the Doctor's aimed for the Torchwood Killer's chest, Harold moving quickly to the right and aiming for an exposed part of Jack's side, the two Time Lords immediately rushing them once the shots were fired, Harold moving to pry Rose from Jack, the Doctor shoving the Torchwood Killer into the console as a means to further damage it, taking another shot through the grates on the floor to hit the power cells below their feet. By the smoke rising up and the cracking and hissing sounds, and the way the lights began to flicker in the TARDIS, things seemed to be working well.

The sounds of sirens were approaching from outside, helicopters and other vehicles surrounding the building.

"I gave you a choice," the Doctor said coldly to the Torchwood Killer, "but you didn't take it. Now you're going to pay the consequences. I'm sorry, I really am so sorry, but that's the way it's got to be."

Everything happened so fast-first she had been screaming at Harold to fire at Jack, regardless of her safety & then both her friends were on the move and firing. She felt her body lurch as Jack fell, her falling with him and screaming as they went down, her body slamming into the grated floor.

During the fall, Jack's arm had released her, so she took the chance to scramble for safety, only to feel someone grab her leg, causing her to scream again. The interior of the TARDIS was beginning to fill with smoke but she could see Jack's face, barely. "No!!" She shouted as she slammed her booted heel into his face, causing him to release her foot.

Spinning around, she saw Harold coming towards her and ran to him, her arms slinking around his waist, hanging onto him as she began to cough from the smoke. She couldn't see The Doctor or the Torchwood Killer, because of the smoke, but she could hear them-

The injured Time Lord laid against the sparking and sputtering console as his good imposter spoke to him; the sirens getting louder outside. "This is far from over…" he muttered to the cold Time Lord.

Rose could hear the sirens now and knew that time was short. They had to get The Doctor out of there. "Doctor!!" She shouted as she began to push away from Harold, coughing harder as the oxygen level in the room was being choked away by the smoke.

That's when she saw him through the haze; Jack Harkness, on the floor with a gun aimed at-her heart jumped in her chest as her gaze lifted up to The Doctor. "_Noooooooo_!!!!!" Rose emitted a telepathic shriek, unaware that the barrier had fallen during The Doctor's raid and it wasn't aimed at anyone, yet everyone, but only for a brief moment.

The same time she had emitted the shriek, though, she pushed away from Harold and dove for Jack; disappearing from Harold's sight into the haze of foggy smoke and landing on Jack.

The evil Time Lord heard the shriek and held his ears as he sunk to the floor, grateful that it had only been brief. When he regained his composure he made aim for The Doctor and lunged, intent on tackling the man; this wasn't over yet.

On the floor, Jack had gotten his bearings and was struggling with Rose for the gun; but she wasn't going to let him have it back. She heard the noise of others moving around, not knowing who it was or where. Pulling a fist back, she glowered at Jack, "no one hurts the people I love, you stupid son of a-"

Her last word was cut off as an explosion ripped through the air, rocking the TARDIS, from the outside, then her fist connected squarely with Jack's face and she watched as the man fell unconscious as she stood up to her feet, the smoke finally beginning to clear slightly. Standing tall, Rose turned to where the two Doctors had stood and gasped at the sight she saw-

Harold started to move quickly to Rose as she fell, worried he might've hit her too, pleased to see that he hadn't. He lifted his screwdriver again to fire at Jack as the immortal grabbed a hold of her foot, but Rose seemed to have it under control as Harold watched her shove her foot right into his face.

As Rose ran up to him, he wrapped his arms tightly around her, breathing a sigh of relief. "It's almost over," he said softly to her, eyes wide, breathing heavy, hearts pounding like mad.

The Doctor continued his fight with the Torchwood Killer, his teeth gritted as he prepared to murder his foe. It made him sick to his stomach, it went against all his morals, but there was no choice here but to kill him. He felt sympathetic to Harold, as once the Torchwood Killer was dead, Harold would be alone, as the Doctor was. It seemed the fate of the Time Lords, no matter what the finer details were, would be the same on both worlds always.

"No, it is over," he said grimly to his foe, hand slightly shaky as he held his enemy's screwdriver to his chest, suddenly startled, the killing shot delayed as Rose's telepathic shriek filled the minds of the three Time Lords in the room, the Doctor, wincing in pain, groaning slightly before starting to regain his composure, only to be tackled by the Torchwood Killer, hitting the floor with the other Time Lord and wrestling with him in an attempt to regain the upper hand and finish him off.

Harold nearly fell to his knees between the sound of the shriek and the still constant sound of drums within his head, which were beating louder and faster than ever in this final battle. He held onto one of the curved posts to stay up, looking up at Rose once the sound was gone, seeing Rose struggling with Jack. He lifted his screwdriver up to fire, unfortunately not having a clear shot, not yet. Then the explosion hit, sending him stumbling and hitting the floor, scrambling up to his feet just in time to see Rose's fist slamming into Jack's face, a sigh of relief escaping him as the man went unconscious.

He moved quickly over to Rose as the smoke cleared, staring at the sight before them as the smoke cleared, keeping his screwdriver out and aimed. One was on the floor, dead, two shots from the Torchwood Killer's sonic screwdriver taken to his chest, destroying both his hearts. The other was on his feet, staring down at his dead foe, breathing heavily, a look of slight shock upon his face as he turned to look at the two of them, gulping and turning to face them and walking closer.

"Rose...Harold. It's over. He's dead. The nightmare's over."

There before her were the two Doctors, one seemingly dead on the floor, with two scorch marks to his chest and the other standing over him. They had both been wearing the same clothing, so she had no idea if the one standing was The Doctor or the Torchwood Killer.

As the man neared her, she raised up the gun at him with one hand, taking a step back as Harold came up to her side, her free going out to keep him from going any farther. He was the President, she was the last surviving member of Torchwood; it was her duty to make sure he was protected at all costs, even with her life as far as she was concerned.

"Don't come any closer." She said to the man who was walking towards them, her voice firm, unwavering, the gun pointed directly at his chest.

Another explosion resounded outside, close to the TARDIS but not hitting it this time and then a voice spoke through a megaphone, "We have you surrounded! Come out with your hands up!!"

She kept her focus on the man in front of her, refusing to yield her vision towards the door of the TARDIS. She felt as if her heart was breaking in her chest, if this was the Torchwood Killer and not…She would die inside knowing she got him killed. "Which one are you?" She said, her voice wavering this time.

The Doctor stopped in his tracks from drawing near them as Rose brought up the gun and aimed it at him, sighing. When the smoke had billowed up around them, he'd feared something like this might happen. Ah well...least he knew he could convince her. He'd done it before, he'd do it again.

Harold flinched at the explosion outside, frowning, then looking back to the Doctor. The military and the police could wait; this was a far more important situation. He often forgot who he was in this country, his place of importance. He could be a bit reckless, something some bodyguards he'd had prior weren't too keen on, but that's just how it was.

Looking to the Doctor, Harold tried to reach into his mind. The drums were softer, still there but not as intense, and he got a feeling of some familiarity from the other Time Lord, but that was questionable, as it could've been another trick. He rested his hand against Rose's shoulder, still holding his screwdriver steady, waiting for an answer.

"I'm the Doctor. I'll prove it to you. The last time we saw each other, before all of this, I tried to tell you something but the transmission was cut off. So now I'm going to finish what I was saying. You said, 'I love you,' and I said, 'And I suppose... if this is the last chance I'll ever have to say it... Rose Tyler... '"

He paused, making direct eye contact with her, holding out one hand towards her.

"I love you too."

Rose felt Harold's hand on her shoulder, but it seemed distant as if it was light years away as her attention was focused on the man before her. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes, not falling as her eyes remained fixed on him. Would she be able to do this if she had to? The answer was yes. If this was the Torchwood Killer then she'd have no second thoughts in killing him for killing The Doctor.

She swallowed hard as the man spoke to her, her arm wavering as he paused after saying her name, the tears threatening to fall. Those last three words though, when she heard him say them it was as if her heart stopped for a second. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion-

The gun dropped from her hand, clattering across the grated floor as the tears she'd been holding back trailed down her cheeks. A breath of air escaped her lips, unaware that she'd even been holding it. Seeing The Doctor's hand held out for hers, she looked down at it then up into his eyes, a bright smile lighting up her features as she took his hand.

"It is you…" She whispered softly as she took his hand and stepped closer to him. The reunion had finally come.

A wide smile spread across the Doctor's face, turning into a grin, squeezing her hand as it was placed within his own, pulling her close to him, staring down into her eyes.

"Hello," he said softly, the smile still on his face. Finally. After this whole long, terrible ordeal, and the years before that, now finally, here it was the _real_ reunion. Leaning down, he softly pressed his lips to hers, holding the kiss for just a moment before pulling back. As much as he would have liked to let the moment last, there were currently military and policemen trying to break into the TARDIS, likely looking for the Torchwood Killer and the President.

Harold watched the reunion, sighing but giving a smile. Hearing more shouting from outside, he and the Doctor made eye contact, and the Doctor nodded.

"Yeah...should get out there and clear things up, eh?" Harold said, pausing as he looked past the Doctor towards the Torchwood Killer. Frowning a bit, he walked over to the body, kneeling down next to it for a moment. One of the biggest threats was over, but now, Harold was truly the last of his kind. There was victory in it, there was triumph, but there was also brutal awareness of how lonely he truly was now. Especially since he knew damn well that Rose, should the other two find a way back to their universe, would leave.

The Doctor looked down at Harold with the body, gently moving Rose away from him a bit, so as to give him his space. He'd even leave the TARDIS, but that wasn't possible. He needed Harold for validation and to _NOT_ get shot and killed.

Harold finally sighed and stood eyes watery but tears not flowing (at least not yet), looking to the two of them. "I'll make sure he gets a proper funeral. Now I suppose we go out there and let them know I'm not dead, and you're not the Torchwood Killer," he said, clearing his throat and pulling himself together, wiping at his eyes then moving to the door.

Speaking loudly, the President announced. "This is Harold Saxon and I'm exiting the uh, police box. I've got one dead, one possibly dead and two living with me. Despite what he looks like, do _**NOT**_ fire upon or arrest the man with me, he is _**NOT**_ the culprit we've been looking for. The Torchwood Killer is dead," he said, pausing, then pushing open the door and stepping out, glancing behind to the others and motioning for them to follow.

Looking to Harold, the Doctor nodded then glanced to Rose. "Right then. Let's be off. See if we can't find a way home, yeah?" he said softly, starting to walk, his hand reaching down to take her own.

The smile was still lighting up her features, even as he pulled her to him, her feet moving slowly as she stopped in front of him. He spoke and then he was kissing her, her eyes closing as the tears silently streamed. It was brief, but brief was good; she knew there was still too much going on around them to focus on just that one moment. She'd waited what had seemed like a lifetime, what was a few more minutes?

As he pulled away and looked at Harold, she took the time to wipe the tears from her face and regain her composure, hazel eyes drifting over the scene quietly. She moved when he pulled her away to give Harold some room, her heart rending at the heartbreaking scene before her, as the Prime Minister knelt down by the man who had been one of the last few Time Lords in existence.

As Harold passed them, she held out a hand, which only hung in the air as he shouted to the military and police outside. Her hand eventually fell back to her side as she glanced up at The Doctor. "Yeah," she said with a smile, "I would like that."

Stepping out of the TARDIS behind The Doctor and the President, she was surprised to see the amount of media there; it shouldn't have surprised her, but it did. Looking to The Doctor, she knew the police would want to talk to her; she was part of Torchwood, after all. "I should give a statement," she said softly to him, a soft smile on her face.

With the energy between the worlds going the way it was, he wondered if a way back was actually more than possible. The combined energies had made Harold's TARDIS work...it just might work for one shot to get them back. That was, once they figured out how bad the damage was to the barrier and how to fix it. So much to do...hopefully enough time. He wanted to get back to Donna, let her know everything was alright. But more than any of it, he was so happy to have Rose back.

The Doctor smiled down at Rose, watching Harold go and talk to the crowd, then following behind him with Rose, blinking at the media. A few wary looks were given, but no one acted on instinct, as the President had given an order.

Looking down to Rose, he nodded. "Go on then. I uh, I'll say what I can if you need me to. Something tells me you and Harold have got it," he said, squeezing her hand tightly.

The press of course was behind the police barrier, yelling questions to the police, the President, to the man who looked like public enemy number one, and to Rose:

"Prime Minister, are you alright?"

"Tell us what happened?!"

"What happened to the Torchwood Killer?"

"Who's that man who looks like him if it's not the Killer?"

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Feeling him squeeze her hand, she gazed up at him, a soft smile upon her lips. "I shall be right back," she said softly and then leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which of course sent the media into a frenzy as pictures were snapped. A broad grin crossed her features as she laughed softly. "Sorry, I couldn't resist," she said playfully.

Releasing his hand she wandered over to a group of reporters, hands raised slightly as she shouted for their attention and for them to quiet down. "Alright, I am Rose Tyler, head of Torchwood 3 and I will only say this once. So if you don't get everything, tough." Rose glanced over at Harold then The Doctor, eventually turning her attention back to the media frenzy before her, lowering her hands to her sides.

"This man," she said motioning to The Doctor, "may look like the Torchwood Killer, but I can assure that he's not. The Torchwood Killer, is finally dead. You've heard of doppelgangers? Basically, we each have another person out there that looks exactly like us. Trust me, I know, I'm Torchwood, I can verify that."

Rose smirked inwardly, knowing the media would eat this all up. Being Torchwood, and Torchwood not being a secret organization on this world, gave her a chance to cover their tracks.

"The Torchwood Killer was this man's doppelganger. When we found this out, we asked for his help. This man's bravery saved our lives, as well as the bravery of the President."

"Who exactly is that man?!" A tall, red haired reporter asked her, causing her to double take the woman. "And why did you kiss his cheek?"

"That is…" she paused as she remembered The Doctor didn't have a name. She couldn't call him 'The Doctor' because that was the name of the evil Time Lord; she had insisted on calling him the Torchwood Killer, because of what the name had meant to her. Her eyes drifted towards The Doctor and then back to the media. "His name is…" she started again, the media beginning to wonder why she kept stalling.


	11. Chapter 11

The Doctor chuckled a little bit as the media went into a photo taking frenzy after the kiss, watching her approach them to talk to them, listening to her words carefully, curious as to how she'd explain things. Doppelganger...that was quite brilliant-simple, but brilliant. He smiled a bit as some of the people looked at him as Rose praised him.

Harold stood on, looking quite grim and slightly distant minded. The Doctor could understand, though in thinking back on his own experience with that, he couldn't help but notice how odd it seemed, thinking back on the death of the Master while looking upon the man. Well...another version of him. There'd be a lot of reorganization now that the one big threat was over, the rebuilding of Torchwood, etc. He didn't know Harold as well as Rose did, but he sensed the Time Lord would do just fine.

Looking back towards Rose and the reporters as the woman asked who he was, and Rose had trouble with his name, he stepped over to her and rested his hand against her back, giving them a friendly smile. "I'm the Doctor. I fix things," he said quite simply, glancing down to Rose, then back to the President, and then to the reporters again. "A lot of damage was done, a lot of lives were lost, things can and will be rebuilt. In short, it was bad here today, but you'll be alright."

He gave Rose's shoulder a brief squeeze, whispering softly to her, "Shall we be off to get some rest and figure out the rest of this then?"

Rose breathed a silent sigh of relief as he rescued her from the carnivorous reporters; even working for Torchwood, she hated dealing with the media, it was the one thing she could do without. Looking up to him as he spoke to her, she nodded, smiling at him. That only lasted a moment, though, as she turned her attention back to the reporters.

"We will reconvene tomorrow, at the President's discretion." She spoke in a very authoritative voice.

Turning away, she heard the reporters shouting at her, wanting more to go on but ignored them as she leaned up towards The Doctor. "Thanks for saving me back there. I don't do reporters too well," she chuckled, the laugh fading as her eyes fell upon Harold.

"I'll be right back…" She said quickly as she stepped away from The Doctor's side and walked over to the President. "Come on, Mister President, let's get you home. You could do with some rest." She had to be official in front of the media, police and military, since it wouldn't look right otherwise.

"Harold," she whispered to him when she had gotten no response from him. Still no response. She began to worry as she gazed upon her friend; he seemed so lost suddenly, his eyes were different somehow.

The drums, the never-ending drumbeat. He could hear it in his head, growing louder now that the evil Time Lord was dead. He was, truly, the last of his kind now, minus the Gallifreyan across the way a bit. Someone was speaking to him, but he didn't quite hear it.

"Mister President, are you alright?" The voice came a bit more forcefully this time, laced with worry and he snapped out of it, turning his head to see Rose, with her hand on his shoulder. And then, he did something he had never done to her.

"I'm fine, Miss Tyler!" He snapped at her, shoving her hand off of him, causing the blonde to take a step back, eyes wide.

"Fine. Sorry." Rose replied, regaining her composure, turning and walking away without another word. She wasn't going to stand there and take that. Her reaction caused the President to feel guilty suddenly-guilty and ashamed. He wasn't sure what had gotten into him; probably just the stress.

Rose felt Harold's eyes on her back as she walked back up to The Doctor and linked her arm with his, " Let's get out of here, yeah?"

He suppressed a chuckle at the authoritative tone she took on in wrapping up things with the reporters, not really amused, actually quite proud. She had changed much, but he suspected mostly for the better. She was stronger, more confident. She was still his Rose, that hadn't changed; it was still there, in her eyes, but she was different all the same. Though, he couldn't hold something like that against her; he'd changed quite literally himself.

The Doctor nodded and watched her go up to Harold, whom he intended to speak to in private prior to them leaving, if they figured out HOW to leave, as he knew the position the man would be in now as the last Time Lord, and supposed all he could do was speak to him. He didn't have words of consolation to offer him, he wouldn't tell him it would be alright. He'd merely tell him the truth of it. He was the last, and the memory of him would be the memory of the Time Lords and Gallifrey. Therefore, he should do good, protect what he could, make the most of the situation. He knew Harold would be here as President for a while, unless the other Time Lord decided that he wanted to leave after all of this, but he told him once his term was over to travel. See the galaxy, fight injustice. It was really all someone like them could do.

His eyes followed Rose over to Harold, concern growing on the Doctor's face at the expression on his own. There was a distant troubled look, and when Harold snapped, well...it could've just been grief, he supposed. He had to remind himself this was not the Master that he knew, and that this one was good.

He linked his arm with Rose's as she came back over and did so to him, eyes looking up to meet Harold's, who gave him an apologetic look then glanced away. "Yeah, lets," he said, starting to turn her to walk towards the entrance, the bodyguards and armed forces there starting to escort Harold out as well.

Outside there was a jeep, where Harold was led to go, the guards motioning for the Doctor and Rose to hurry up and get in, as the place was still considered unsafe for the time being until everything was cleared up.

She never looked back at Harold, never saw the look he had given The Doctor and, personally, didn't care; she wasn't going to be talked to like that, or treated that way. Maybe it was grief, but he didn't need to treat her like that, even if it was a one-time mess up. As she thought, she immediately began to feel guilty, but pushed those feelings back into the depths of her mind.

Walking towards the entrance with him, she saw Harold being hurried to a jeep, the guards waving at them to hurry up. Faltering in her stride, but not stopping, she glanced up at The Doctor, wondering if he wanted to go with them. She knew they were trying to protect them, but she did have a few loose ends to take care of; like going to the Hub and trying to figure out if there was a way she could send The Doctor back home, and her with him. Course they needed rest too; a faint smile crossed her face as she remembered how Ianto would always tell her that she needed more sleep than what she was getting.

Now it was beginning to hit her, the exhaustion and sadness of losing everyone. Even with the Torchwood Killer dead, she still felt no justification for her loss. She had to go to the cemetery, to the gravestones of her family, before she left, assuming she could leave this world and go back home.

"Did you want to ride with them?" She asked him, her mind obviously not on the matter at hand.

Harold sat in the Jeep once he got in, feeling pretty bloody awful, but his head...the drumming wouldn't stop, the pounding. Everything was hitting him at once and it was one hell of a struggle to keep it together. He wanted to apologize to Rose...in private though. Not around all these guards.

He rested back against the seat, rubbing his temples, glancing over to where the Doctor and Rose walked, watching her looking somewhat hesitant, his hearts lurching slightly. Great. She was still mad. Couldn't blame her he supposed, but still...it was the last thing he wanted right now. He felt horribly, horribly alone, and didn't want his last living friend pissed at him and avoiding him.

The Doctor looked to Rose and shrugged. "Doesn't bother me either way. If you don't want to we don't have to. But I've got a few things to take care of, and I'll be needing Harold's help, possibly."

He'd need another Time Lord's assistance in fixing the damage that the Torchwood Killer had done, and figuring out a way home. He had some ideas, but given that the energy flow was all wonky, he'd need someone from this world to help him. He wondered, could a repair be made to allow passage between their dimensions more easy? Who knew what that would take, but that was highly possible. It'd certainly make things easier in the end, though, given the penchant for this world's evils to cross over somehow to Earth Prime, well...it could be a bad thing too. It would all have to depend first on figuring out just what had happened in the first place.

As he spoke, she listened attentively, her eyes drifting back to Harold when he was finished, unable to fully see him in the darkness of the night. The hesitance showed on her face as she seemed to know this was the end. Slowly, with a soft sigh, she pulled her arm out and looked up at him, her shoulders straightening, preparing herself.

"Yeah," Rose said softly, "you'll need his help to get back home."

Her eyes drifted towards the jeep and then back to him, holding back the emotions that threatened to take her over now. "I've got some things to take care of. If…" her voice faltered with emotion, but she quickly recovered. "If you figure things out with him, would you meet me back at the Hub? Before you leave…Again…"

The guards continued to wave at them, wanting them to hurry, but there she was taking her own sweet time. Was it so bad that she wanted a proper goodbye this time? Not a fading image? She didn't think it was, but she could be wrong. "I just don't want to say goodbye to another image that…That I can't even touch."

He frowned a bit as she moved back, reaching for her hand, not wanting to let go of her. It wasn't like the Doctor to be overly affectionate, but with Rose, well, a lot had changed in him, at least towards her. Especially now with all they'd been through. Now that he'd had the impossible reunion with her, well...he wanted her just a bit closer to him than before.

"Well, we'll need his help getting back home. What's this talk of me leaving alone? You aren't coming with me?"

He frowned deeply. She didn't have anything left but Harold on this world, she'd lost so much, but did she actually still want to stay? It would break his hearts if she told him she'd rather stay in this place than rejoin him on the TARDIS. He'd been so miserable with her gone...a misery he'd barely been able to conceal. If she left him once more, well...things would be a lot tougher.

He glanced over towards the guards, holding up his free hand to tell them to wait, looking back down at her, an unmasked look of pleading he rarely showed in his eyes.

"I want you to come with me, Rose. I lost you once, I don't want to lose you again."

As she had pulled away, she felt him take her hand, her heart wanting to break from the touch. Everything that had happened, it seemed like she'd have to hold onto it forever, just like everything else.

As he spoke, her heart jumped in her chest, eyes wide, a smile beginning to form. She saw the pleading look in his eyes, a look she hadn't seen before in the years she'd been with him; he wanted her with him. "I just thought…" she stammered and then shook it off.

"Of course I'll come!" The smile brightened her face now as she jumped up and hugged him tightly. "I don't want to lose you again, either."

After the hug, she gazed at the jeep and then back to him, happier now. "Well, I still have some business to take care of before we leave," she glanced back towards Harold, knowing she'd have to say goodbye to him, but not wanting to go through all that heartache again. "Meet back at the Hub, once you get things sorted out, yeah? I….I need to visit with some family."

She was talking about going to the cemetery to see her family, let them know everything that had happened. Even though they were dead and gone, she needed to have some sort of closure about everything. Plus, she knew Jack would be held at Torchwood; she would be able to get in a few last words to him before she left at least.

His sad expression turned into a wide grin at the look on her face, giving a laugh. "Oh Rose Tyler, so often you think far off in the wrong direction. That was rude, wasn't it? Sorry. So sorry. But of course I want you with me. You really think that upon me finding a way here I'm going to make you stay behind?"

He hugged her back, closing his eyes for a brief moment, enjoying her embrace. "I fully intend to keep you around for as long as you'd want to. You'll get to meet Donna! You'll like Donna, I think..." Moving back from the hug and re-opening his eyes, he started to move towards the Jeep, pausing at her mentioning of meeting up with her later. "Oh. Alright then. I'll see you there," he said softly, pulling her close and kissing her hand, letting go then jogging off towards the jeep, climbing inside with Harold.

Harold gave a faint smile, glancing over as one of the guards closed the door of the jeep and got in the front seat, the other in the jeep taking off with them in it, leaving Rose behind them.

"You alright?" the Doctor asked Harold softly.

"No. I'm not. But I suppose I will be eventually. Got used to being alone for so long. Then he showed up, and it all changed. And...I tried to stop him. I tried to change his mind. But it didn't work. Nothing ever did."

"Yeah," the Doctor muttered. "I know the feeling."

"Do you now?"

"Yep. My story's a bit different in some respects to yours, but not all that different. Lets just say the other you...the one where I'm from...well, he's not such a nice guy. Quite a bit like the Torchwood Killer, actually."

"Strange how these things work," Harold said after a long pause, turning to look out the window, his mind starting to get lost in thought. Letting the other Time Lord be, the Doctor went silent for the rest of the ride back to Torchwood.

Upon arrival at the Hub, Jack was taken to a cell for questioning, the Doctor and Harold and a few military types convening in the main meeting area, waiting for Rose.

She smiled at him pulling her close and kissing her hand; and then she watched him jog to the jeep, her eyes keeping it in sight till it had turned a corner and was gone. The smile faded from her face as she strolled to a police officer and pulled out her Torchwood badge. "I'm borrowing your vehicle for official business. You'll be able to have the department pick it up outside the Torchwood base in the morning."

Slipping her badge back into her jacket, she held her hands out for the keys; which were promptly handed over to her. Good. Going over to the cruiser, she climbed in, started the ignition and sped off, vaguely hearing the cop shout that the Torchwood base was the other way. She knew that already, she wasn't heading there and that's not what she had told him…She had told him _official business_. Crazy cop-

Minutes later, she was pulling up to the cemetery, parked and got out. A breeze had begun to chill the air, or maybe it was just her and the vibe from the cemetery. Pulling her jacket tighter around her, she saw the thin layer of fog on the ground and began to walk in the direction of the mausoleum that housed her family's remains.

It only took a moment for her to arrive, the steel door screeching on its hinges as she pushed it open. The place was covered in dust, despite her attempts to keep that from happening. There they were, all lined up two on one side and one on the other, a spare one for her when she would die: _Peter Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Anthony Tyler_.

Walking over to her mother's, she knelt in front of the concrete sign engraved with her name and began to speak:

"Mum, I've had a hell of a day today. I was chasing after the man that killed you and…He's back, Mum. The Doctor. The real Doctor, not the evil fraud that had tricked us. He saved my life, Mum. He..He said he loves me." Rose paused as silent tears began to stream down her cheeks. "I'm going home. I won't be able to come here anymore to talk to you. But, the man who killed you; he's dead. The Doctor killed him. Isn't that some good news? He's finally gone. This world won't be bothered by him anymore. No more will die at his hands."

Thunder sounded outside as the breeze picked up, rain imminent-

"I can't keep him waiting too long. He's waiting for me back at the Hub, or will be soon. I'll keep the promise you had made me swear to before you died, Mum. I swear I will. I promise…" With those words, she kissed the tips of her fingers and placed them on the engraving of her Mom's name, closing her eyes. A burst of warm air surrounded her, or maybe it was just her imagination, but it had smelled like her mother.

Opening her eyes, she stood and left the mausoleum, heading for the SUV as the sky opened up and it began to rain. Inside, unbeknownst to her, she was being watched by two people, one of them holding a baby-they were the ghosts of her family, watching her leave, smiling as they knew she was going back home.

Moments later, she arrived back at the Hub and walked in, her hair already drenched from the downpour outside. "Miss me?" She asked with a smile as she heard Jack shouting at the officers who had taken him back for questioning.

Once Rose was back at Torchwood, plans were discussed on just what the Torchwood Killer had done to cause the tear, and how it could be fixed. It was pinpointed to the use of energy from the TARDIS, built up in a way that the Doctor explained was a lot like how he, Rose and Mickey had arrived there in the first place, only this had been done intentionally. Immediately, plans were set forth to repair the tear, which was a bit tricky since the energies of both worlds were blending in.

The Doctor and Harold used some of the technology at Torchwood, in addition to their own powers, to locate the exact spot of the tear, using Harold's TARDIS to send the energy towards the tear, which was a great big ball of swirly timey wimey energy stuff. The good part of this was that once it was sealed, since some of the energy from his world was part of the seal and now mixed in with the energies of this world, it was determined that he would in fact be able to, with the use of a TARDIS, get back to Earth Prime.

Once the tear was sealed, Harold and the Doctor got to working on the Torchwood Killer's TARDIS, using the same trick they had before to fix Harold's to get it up and going once the physical parts were all repaired. It took only a few hours before it was all fixed up, and ready to go.

The time to leave had finally arrived, Harold requesting the three of them be left alone at the repaired TARDIS by the military and police types, since this was a moment he wanted to have in private, given things that might be said.

Turning to Rose, Harold's look was quite serious, hiding his depression that she, the last of those whom he truly trusted on this planet, was leaving, reaching forward and taking her hand. "I'm sorry I snapped earlier...I don't want that to be your last memory of me before you go," he said, voice a bit on the soft side, his hand squeezing hers tightly. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't stop so many of the things that happened here. I'm sorry I couldn't save your family. I'm also sorry to see you leave...but your place is with the Doctor. Should you ever decide to come back, at least to visit, you'll of course be more than welcome." He pursed his lips together, glancing down for a moment then back to her. "I'm going to miss you."


	12. Chapter 12

Once everything was said and done, and they were getting ready to leave for Earth Prime, or home to them, Rose simply looked around as the police and military personnel left the area and Harold took her hand in his. Hazel eyes gazed at him, no longer mad, but she had been hoping to avoid this; she hated saying "goodbye" to people anymore, she'd had enough to last a lifetime.

As he spoke to her, she felt her eyes watering as she gazed at the floor, afraid to meet his eyes. They had gotten close during her time here, not as close as Harold would have probably liked, but close enough; Rose had kept pushing back, refusing to let their relationship pass beyond friendship and business. Guilt washed over as she remembered Mickey, who had stayed with her until…He was presumed dead now, though no body had ever been found. What had that evil Time Lord done to him?

Harold squeezing her hand gently snapped her out of her guilt trip and she glanced up at him, taking his other hand with hers, not really caring what The Doctor thought at that moment in time. "I'm going to miss you too, Harold. I…You…" she faltered as she glanced down and then back up to him.

"Don't blame yourself for their deaths. It wasn't your fault, it was mine and we all know that. Because of me, they died. He used them and when I refused, thinking he was bluffing…" she discontinued what she was saying, refusing to go on.

"You have been there for me through so much, kept me from totally losing myself and going insane. Without you, I probably would never have made it this far. I probably never would have survived to see The Doctor again." Rose gave a small smile and moved a hand to brush Harold's cheek. "Thank you, my friend."

Leaning forward, Rose gave him a soft kiss on his cheek and then leaned back once more. "I'll try to come back and visit you. Trust me, I shall try. Travel between universes is supposed to be impossible, but I've done it more than once, so it's only improbable." Her soft smile turned into that famous Rose grin, "I'll be back."

He wondered as he stood there and said his goodbyes what might've happened between them if the Doctor had never shown up. Perhaps they would've wound up together, perhaps not. It was something he'd desired for a while, but had never acted on it, not wishing to seem like he was preying upon her while her defenses were down from grief. The Master was not that kind of man. He'd try to stop thinking of what possibly could have been, as there was no way in hell it was happening now.

He looked down into her eyes as she finally looked up at him, still feeling guilty about the deaths, but not saying anything further on it. He gave her a faint smile, forced, keeping all of the current intense emotions bottled up inside. He had to hold it together; he would not allow her last image of him to be him in tears.

He sighed softly as her hand brushed his cheek, biting down on his lip as she kissed him. "You're welcome." Her words left him slightly skeptical; why would she want to come back to this place of pain and misery? "Alright then. I'll be waiting for you."

He forced a full smile, mingled with plenty of sadness, glancing up as the Doctor came over and held out his hand. Harold reached forward and shook it, giving the other a nod. "Doctor. Thank you for everything." He would've said more, but the words wouldn't come. Too much, too many thoughts, and of course that damned drumming assaulted his mind.

The Doctor shook his hand, then pulled back, placing his hand on Rose's shoulder. "No need to thank me. It was all of us. Well...guess we'd better be off then, yeah?" he said to Rose, giving her a slight smile, then looking to Harold, giving him a salute. "Cheers, President Saxon. Take care of this world, it needs as much as it can get," he said, walking backwards, then heading into the TARDIS, starting to get it ready to go. He'd had a brief moment to speak to Harold, and though few words had been said, he hoped what had been said would stay with him.

She released Harold's hands as The Doctor placed his hand on her shoulder, her smile faltering but not fading from her face; although the sadness could be vaguely seen there too. She felt his hand slip away as he backed up and then went into the TARDIS. Slowly, Rose did the same, going backwards and then turning away and walking in as well.

Just outside of it, she rested a hand on the outside and turned her head to give Harold one last final look, her smile faded due to the sadness of leaving a friend behind. "Take care, Harold." Finally, she took her hand off of the TARDIS and placed it to her head in a salute, "see you around, Mister President." With those words she allowed her hand back to her side, smiled, turned and went inside, closing the doors, albeit reluctantly, behind her.

Leaning against the doors, she closed her eyes, a deep sad sigh escaping her lips; she was leaving people she cared about behind again, but, as she told The Doctor years before, _she made her decision a long time ago_.

Opening her eyes, she stepped away from the doors and towards the center console, the smile returning to her face once again as she came up beside The Doctor. Though, she was hesitant about this particular TARDIS, she knew that they were just using it to get home. After that? Well, she didn't know, nor did she really care.

"So, home we go!" She spoke, happiness filling her voice and face as she leaned against the console. "You have got to tell me. What has happened since I've been gone? I want to know everything! Who. What. Where. Absolutely everything!" Her eyes sparkled as she began to move around the console, helping him if needed.

Harold nodded, smiling at the salute, watching them go into the TARDIS. He'd remain until the TARDIS was gone, in case something went wrong.

The Doctor had set the controls to 2008 Earth Prime, London, the exact date it had been when he'd left. He triple checked it, knowing that sometimes, well, things went a bit wonky and he wound up in places he didn't expect to wind up in. It was imperative this time they ended up back in London, however. He suspected he was going to get an earful from Donna when they returned.

Looking up as Rose entered, he gave her a smile. It was almost as if nothing had ever changed. The interior of this TARDIS was so similar to his own, why, they might as well be in deep space, ready to hit the random button and head off to another time and place. The thought of that brought a wide grin to his face, the solemness that had hung around him most of the time since his arrival on Pete's World, finally fading away, his old enthusiasm back.

"Oh, there's so much to tell, Rose Tyler, so much. Made a new friend. Couple, actually. Lots of adventures...but those stories can wait, because now," he said, quadruple checking everything, "we need to get ourselves home. Here we go, allons-y!" he declared, hitting the button, the TARDIS trembling for a moment, then dematerializing, the familiar whooshing sound filling the air. Grinning wildly at Rose, the Doctor monitored the screen, watching their progress.

"It's working, Rose, it's working!" he declared, the TARDIS continuing on for a few moments before finally settling down. This should be the right destination, and there was only one way to find that out.

Moving away from the console, the Doctor quickly went to the door, rubbing his hands then pushing the door open, looking outside. London, 2008ish. No zeppelins.

"Rose," he said, beckoning her close. "Look. We're home."


End file.
